Infinite Stratos: The Apprentice
by AnAce0fSpades
Summary: Ichika Orimura, better known throughout the world as the apprentice of the infamous Tabane Shinonono and the brother of the Brunhilde, has been kidnapped during the second Mondo Grosso. Luckily, it seems Ichika was able to save his youngest sister, Madoka Orimura, from the same fate. What will become of the young genius? Will his fate change for the better... or worse?
1. Chapter 1

[June 20th, 2033. 9:32 p.m.]

[P.O.V. - Narrator]

Two figures sat on a couch in the middle of a cosy looking living room. Personal nicknacks and photos littered the walls, the area was relatively untidy. Overall the place was that of a normal living area for a small family, however the inhabitants were strikingly different from "normal". Of the figures, the one who would be considered the most "normal", was a girl of 10 years old with raven black hair and deep brown-red eyes that held unearthly beauty. The boy to the left of her, who had an arm wrapped around her shoulders, differed far more from "normal". He held the same color hair, though his was unnatural and seemed to absorb all other colors around it. The boy's left eye was the same deep reddish-brown, and showed a wise soul with a thirst for knowledge. In contrast, the boys' right eye was an extremely advanced mechanical replacement, it had the fire of a warrior inside of it. An eyepatch was flipped up above the mechanical eye showing that the boy likely hid the eye from public, but felt comfortable enough to have it revealed in his home.

The petite girl was Madoka Orimura, a mischievous girl with a knack for getting into trouble, sometimes too much and her brother would have to bail her out. The very fact of her last name meant that she already had a defined future (at least in the eyes of the world). Since she was the only sister of the world champion Chifuyu Orimura, she had ridiculous expectations laid on her from the moment Chifuyu won the first Mongo Grosso (a championship between only the best I.S. pilots in the world). Madoka was expected to grow to be an IS pilot on par with her elder sister, something she thought would never happen no matter how hard she tried.

The boy to her left was her brother, Ichika Orimura. He always watched her back and would get her out of the trouble she constantly found herself in. Ichika was a prodigy, a genius among geniuses who, given a few years, would be able to give his one (and only) friend, Tabane Shinonono, a run for her money. As if being able to walk alongside the inventor of the Infinite Stratos as her apprentice wasn't enough, he had already collected many achievements for himself. He was easily the most knowledgeable person in the world on the IS, besides Tabane herself. Tabane needed Ichika just as much as he needed her. Considering she was always making decisions without the slightest concern for consequences, he was constantly finding himself the one making additions and adjustments to her inventions so they wouldn't hurt the people they were designed to help. The Infinite Stratos had been the ultimate weapon, but without young Ichikas' ideas such as an Inertia Canceler (to protect the pilot from the excessive amounts of G-Forces), or the Absolute Barrier (to prevent the pilot from being harmed by the military grade weaponry the IS would be fighting against even if its' armor broke), the IS would've only been a glorified death trap.

The young boy knew that Madoka would almost certainly become an IS pilot, considering his elder sister was the "Brunhilde". Unfortunately, he also knew that he would never become one, as only females could pilot an IS. Not even he nor Tabane knew why only females could use the invention. Knowing this, he refused to be a weight that would drag his familys' stength down, so he had dedicated all of his time to mastering several fighting styles which included mainly hand-to-hand combat and swordsmanship. His sword fighting skills were exceptional, as was most of what the boy did due to his extrordinary intelligence.

He had a nigh perfect memory, but with the mechanical eye, he had a literal photographic memory. The mechanical eye was originally a replacement built by Tabane when he lost his organic eye around 5 years ago. He... tried not to dwell on how he had lost his eye.

He wore an eyepatch for many reasons. Firstly because the mechanical eye was extremely advanced, and the government might give him trouble if they knew he had access to such technology. Secondly, the mechanical eye tended to freak people out. However, most importantly, he kept it as a reminder of losing his eye. A reminder of how powerless he felt when it was slowly cut out of his face.

Ichika and Madoka had been raised by their elder sister Chifuyu Orimura, who gave up her own childhood so they could have one and had worked like a dog to give them the childhood she never had. Of course after the invention of the IS, their sister had become incredibly famous as the best pilot in the world, and money was no longer an issue. They had been living with the Shinonono family's considerable estate, but after winning the first Mondo Grosso Chifuyu had immediately bought the house they were now sitting in.

[P.O.V. - Madoka]

Madoka was sitting next to her brother, he was mesmerized by the Television, watching as the final match of the second ever Mondo Grosso was about to commence. As much as she hated to admit it, she knew she was likely the 3rd most important person in his life, and being 3rd on the list of the 3 people he cared for really stung. She would take whatever she could get, and right now being snuggled up to him watching the television, she was about as happy as she could be. That was until she once again looked at that mechanical eye of his, it was entrancing, kaleidoscopic... constantly shifting in color... blue, purple, black, red, orange, yellow, and on and on and on. That wasn't just the light hitting it a funny way, it actually shifted color constantly at random intervals. Something Tabane had added, Madoka had no idea why and the inventor acted like it didn't even exist. It was mesmerizing. She saw Ichika's eye's squint.

"Do you hear that?" He questioned.

"Madoka." She broke out of her trance.

"Eh?"

"Do you hear that?" He repeated, in an odd tone of anxiety. Ichika sat up from the couch.

She listened for a second, but the only thing she could hear was the announcer on the Television. "Er... no?"

Ichika walked to the wall, putting an ear to it.

"Ichika, do you feel al-"

"GET DOWN!" Her brother lunged at her, knocking her over the back of the couch and pushing her to the floor, covering her body with his.

A blinding light suddenly flashed across the entire house and an ear splitting sound followed, deafening her. Her eyes were shut tight from the light as she and her brother were flicked into the air like feathers. She felt bits and pieces of an object cut her all over, shrapnel. Madoka slammed into a wall... and instantly blacked out.

[P.O.V. - Ichika]

A bright light flashed and I immediately closed my left eye out of a desire to, ya know, not go blind, lucky for me I could keep my mechanical eye open. I felt an uncomfortable heat wash over my body as I was thrown across the room, hurriedly tucking myself into the fetal position to give myself the best chance of survival.

"Uugh!" I grunted sharply as I slammed into the pantry, crashing through it and all the food straight into the wall it was placed in front of and in the process definitely breaking a few bones. Bonus! But hey, being right near an explosion and coming off with only a couple broken bones and cuts? ... score!

Luckily, my long concocted plan seemed to be going smoothly, and by that I mean it looks like Phantom Task has finally taken their opportunity of my sister being away to kidnap me. Could they kill me? Yes, but I was willing to bet whoever their leader was wanted my knowledge and skills more than they wanted me dead.

Oh, my plan? Right, I should explain. You see around 5 years ago a terrorist organization called Phantom Task attacked Japan. The how and why isn't important right now, the point is they did it and they almost killed millions. However after their major attack they have continued more minor acts of terrorism around the world; stealing, killing, kidnapping, you name it they've done it. Now, Tabane and Chifuyu are responsible for stopping their first attack, and I've tried to persuade them to stop their further minor attacks, but Tabane is uninterested and Chifuyu is more concerned with protecting me and Madoka. So I have made a plan to take them down, and step one is intentionally getting myself kidnapped. Once I am kidnapped I will likely be taken to a facility of theirs, from there I can escape and hack their mainframe, gaining data of all of their plans and gaining a huge advantage in my one man war. A lot of risks and rolling the dice? Ya. But these people are killing thousands, tens of thousands, maybe more. Someone has to take them down, and if that someone has to be me, I'm willing to pay whatever price is necessary. Although, I predicted they would attempt to kidnap me when I was alone, and I will not have Madoka dragged into my plans.

I looked up at the now destroyed living room, now with a giant hole in the wall directly across from me. The silhouette of two IS suits walked closer. I didn't wait for the dust to settle, I scanned the room for Madoka. She was buried under a little bit of rubble a few yards to my right. Picking myself up, I ran to her an swiped the rubble off of her unconscious body. I easily picked her up in my arms and started running towards the houses' safe room. I had to get Madoka safe, but also had to get kidnapped, not to mention making sure It didn't look like I was TRYING to get kidnapped.

"Get the bastard!" One of them yelled as I rushed out of the room, down the hallway. One IS lunged and I barely ducked under the massive claw. I slid to a halt as I turned, sprinting down the next hallway to the left. The IS that was flying after me slammed straight into the wall, not being able to stop fast enough. A shot from the second IS nicked me on my left arm, but a nick was enough to give me a deep gash with burns. But they were too late. I placed my hand on a square on the wall, it scanned my hand and a secret door in the wall shot open. One IS was still buried under the rubble of what used to be a wall. The second was now flying across the hallway, which would really only take it about a second. It was worth noting that this whole time the two were tearing up the house, they were after all massive machines, they weren't exactly meant to be fighting inside a building.

I threw Madoka into the room and placed my hand back on the scanner, closing it instantly. I leaped to the side to avoid being hit by the oncoming IS. I dashed back across the hallway I had just ran across and turned once more, finding a staircase. Sure I actually wanted to be kidnapped, but I still wasn't just going to make it easy for them. With my and Tabane's inventions I could've easily fought them off, but they were all in our laboratory.

I sprinted up the stairs, almost tripping while I ran up them. The IS that was chasing me landed at the top of the stairs. It grabbed at me, I lunged and rolled under its legs, coming up in a full sprint. I didn't pause to look back as I gunned straight at Chifuyu's room near the end of the hall. At this point the house was starting to fall apart from the damage the explosion and movement of the two IS had caused. With one kick the door flew off its hinges.

Chifuyu's room was very basic. Ignoring the fact that the floor was so covered in dirty clothes (I didn't have time to clean today, alright? Give me a break.), there was only her work desk, dresser, and bed. Above the head of the bed was a sheathed katana, being held in the air by hooks in the wall. I jumped the length of the room and snatched the katana from its resting place, turning back to face the hallway I had come from. My mind processed the IS feet away from me, but I couldn't move my body fast enough to dodge. I was thrown back into the wall. With a sickening **CRACK** the wall, and what I presumed to be the bones I hadn't yet broken... broke. My body fell with a softened thud onto Chifuyu's bed and I breathed in the comforting smell, which really conflicted with the whole "potentially fighting for my life" thing. I rolled off the bed just in time to avoid an IS hand slamming down and breaking the bed into splinters, as well as creating a large hole in the floor. But before the pilot got a chance to turn and attack, I had sprinted out of the room. They hadn't been using their actual weapons, but I knew that would change once I begin counter attacking. I was still surprised at the amount of violence they were using though, If they were trying to kidnap me and keep me "healthy" for questioning/torture, they were doing a pitiful job.

After a few steps I threw open the door to my room. Instead of dirty clothes, mechanics and bits and pieces of inventions littered the room. Sure it was messy, but I knew exactly where everything was. I grabbed a small piece of an IS arm then opened the window next to my own bed and jumped out, falling into a roll on the ground.

I knew outside any IS would have an advantage over me, they can fly for shit sake. However, in case you haven't noticed they are very large machines, so inside a building (even a crumbling one), I have that small advantage. So, sword in one hand and peice of IS arm in the other, I ran back inside the collapsing house, now back on the bottom floor. I pushed open the door and ran to the living room, ducking under the completely torn up and flipped over couch. Ripping a piece of cloth from it, I quickly tied the katana to my waist and crawled out from under it. While running circles through the crumbling house and dodging the two IS that were hot on my tail, I stripped the piece of IS in my hands. After throwing away the parts I didn't need I reassembled a few pieces. It actually only took about ten seconds, I had been working on IS almost since the day they were invented. In my hand I now held a spare power cell, augmented to explode. The piece had originally been a part of my newly designed AIC (Active Inertia Canceller, a little side project of mine. The Passive Inertia Cancellors I had invented were an integral part of all IS, but no one had ever made a constantly running Inertia Canceller. I designed it and was going to give it to Tabane as a birthday present. We worked together on everything we did, but every year we would make one side invention and give it to each other as a birthday gift for fun. Unfortunately, I was going to and planning on being kidnapped, so that tradition might have to wait until I break out. Luckily, she has the password to my home supercomputer, and could easily get in to get to my designs while I'm "away".) But I digress.

Once I finished fashioning the makeshift explosive I turned around. After all of that I was now in the very destroyed living room. Beams from the house had fallen down, the couch I had been sitting in with Madoka was broken in two. The walls had more holes then I cared to count. The ceiling was collapsing in on itself with every second.

One IS was standing across the room, which isn't saying too much considering it was a deadly machine no more than 5 yards from me. The second IS smashed through the ceiling and joined it's partner, landing only a few feet next to the other pilot. I needed to put on a good performance, and not to brag but I thought I was doing pretty damn well so far.

They gripped the hilts of their massive swords, with a **SHING** the blades where unsheathed. With my left hand holding the makeshift bomb, I grabbed the hilt of the katana with my right hand. With a flash I drew the blade and readied myself. The sunlight flowing through the holes in the walls glinted off of the sword, revealing the name ORIMURA etched into the magnificent blade. I had expected the pilots would be laughing at me, a young boy preparing himself to fight off two IS. But they looked deadly serious, they must have been briefed on my abilities, although my abilities were already known throughout the world.

I had to play my cards right. I had to do well enough in this fight to look believable, but not hard enough to win, although I doubted I COULD actually win... good thing that wasn't my goal. I could feel my multitude of wounds slowing me. I ignored the site of my own blood dripping to the floor.

[P.O.V. - None]

For a few tense seconds the IS and boy stood still, assessing each other. Breaking the standstill, the boy dashed at the two looming figures. Before even moving their blades he jumped into the air between them, twirling and slicing at both pilots, only for the blade to bounce off harmlessly from the IS shield. Out of his left hand Ichika dropped the makeshift bomb in between them, letting his momentum carry him into a run after hitting the floor. He dived behind a large piece of debris for cover.

A large blast went off, throwing debris across the ruins of what used to be the Orimura household. The two IS had hardly moved from the explosive when it had gone off yet they both looked relatively fine, although the blast probably brought down their shield energy a large sum.

Sounds of falling pieces of wooden beams could be heard as the ruins continued to fall apart. Only remnants of walls stood where the entire house once was, the only untouched part being the large "safe room" Madoka was in. Flames from both explosions flickered across the remnants of the house, licking at the walls and floor. The flames lit up the night sky, rising high into the air.

The young boy came out of the chunk of debris he had used for cover. The flames cast shadows across his body and face, flickering in the moonlight. Covered in soot and adorned with cuts and abrasions Ichika stood tall against his adversaries. Raising his sword once more and twirling it in his hand, he was determined not to go down without further fight.

The two IS turned to face the mere child. They couldn't kill him, they were ordered to take him alive. They couldn't use any energy weapons, they might kill their target, they could only use their swords. But they wouldn't playing games.

The glow of the two IS lit up the face of the boy. They once more readied their blades.

Ichika's knuckles whitened as he gripped his katana's hilt with both hands. His own blood lined the blade and hilt of the sword, it dampened the remnants of his clothes. He shifted his feet. His stance deepened. He took in a deep breath whilst staring down his two opponents.

The pilots would not take any chances this time. They shot forward.

Ichika's breath seeped out of cracked lips. His muscles tensed. He looked straight at the IS flying toward him, mere milliseconds from colliding with him.

Waiting till the last second he rolled to the left, dodging a slice. Coming out of the roll he blocked a strike aimed for his back. A look of surprise dawned on the boys face, he hadn't expected a mere katana to be able to withstand a strike from an IS. A second strike forced Ichika to back up, being pinned against one of the few remaining walls of his home. In quick succession he continued to repeatedly block the heavy strikes of the colossal machines. A large crack appeared on the katana. With every strike the katana obtained more damage, the young boy couldn't possibly match the power of the heavy stikes. He continued to block each strike, protecting the more vital areas of his body while still gaining large cuts on his appendages.

After only seconds of the boy hopelessly defending himself, one of the IS delivered a particularly heavy strike to him. With a look of horror on his face Ichika watched as the IS sword went straight through the katana, stabbing through his chest and pinning him to the crumbling wall behind him. With that, the young boy's efforts ceased as he finally gave into unconsciousness. One of the IS deactivated, the pilot ran to Ichika and began to tend to his wounds, after all they couldn't get any information out of him if he was dead. After a few minutes of cleaning and bandaging Ichika's wounds, the pilot engaged her IS and lifted the body of the young boy into her arms. The two IS flew away, to take Ichika to wherever their boss had instructed, and unwittingly completing the first part of Ichikas' own plans.

[P.O.V. - Chifuyu]

An IS barreled through the air at speeds most would think impossible, a hypersonic boom resonating a second after a flash of the IS crossed the sky. Glass shattered from all the buildings the IS hurtled passed after the loud **CRACK** was heard of the breaking sound barrier. The world renowned pilot... the now back-to-back champion of the Mondo Grosso, wore an expression that would bring even the strongest of people to their knees out of pure fear. The aura of killing intent rolling off of the pilot had reached the point of being deadly in and of itself. The IS had been flying for hours now, but neither it nor the pilot looked in anything other than perfect shape, in fact they were increasing in speed with every second.

Chifuyu Orimura was enraged. She had been notified straight after her victory that police had been called for an IS terrorist attack on her home, but when they arrived... they only found a traumatised Madoka and rubble. She had demanded further information, but they insisted they didn't have any more information. Chifuyu had immediately begun flying back to Japan, which was taking several painstaking hours. Finally, she arrived... to a horrifying image.

"Ruins" would be an underestimate for the home. Aside from a few bits of wall standing up and the safe room, it was ALL destroyed. Outside of the home stood a ring of emergency workers and onlookers. In one of the fire trucks sat her little sister Madoka, and by her were the Shinonono siblings.

The crowd parted for her as her IS dropped out of the sky, slamming into the asphalt.

"MOVE!" Chifuyu shouted to the crowd in her way, they hastily obeyed as Chifuyu walked to where Madoka was sitting.

Chifuyu's heart wrenched at her chest as she heard Madoka's sobs. After a few minutes Madoka's sobs quieted enough for Chifuyu to question her.

"Madoka" *sob* "Madoka... Madoka look at me." *sob*

She tilted Madoka's head to look at her.

"I need you to tell me what happened, ok? Can you do that for me?" Chifuyu said in the softest tone she could muster.

"I- *sob* I- I don't know I- *sob* We- *sob* We were sitting- *sob* on the couch and- *sob* and Ich- Ichika yelled to get down. *sob* He- he jumped at me a- *sob* and covered me with his body. Ther- *sob* There was a loud noise an- *sob* and everything went black. Th- *sob* then I just woke up in the panic room. Ic- Ichika wasn't there- *sob* and- *sob* and everything was broken. Wh- *sob* where is he? I- *sob* I want Ichika. Where is he?"

"Shhhh Madoka, everything is going to be fine." Chifuyu began petting Madoka to calm her down. "Everything is going to be fine, I will find Ichika but first I need to know if you'll be okay with Tabane and Houki here for a little while?" Madoka slowly nodded.

"Good." Chifuyu wasted no time, she dashed to the ruins of her home and entered the safe room, which was still standing unharmed. The rather large room contained a bathroom, a set of beds, a desk with a computer, and enough supplies to last three people weeks.

She ran to the desk and logged into the computer, searching for the files of security cameras she had placed around the house. Yes, she had planted security cameras in her own home. You could call her paranoid but she wouldn't care, it was paying off now.

With both a growing sense of horror and pride she watched as the events of Ichika's kidnapping unfolded in front of her. The cameras began to cut out as the house was destroyed until only one remained recording Ichika's last stand against the two IS. She was enthralled at Ichika's skill to defend against the two massive machines. Chifuyu could be heard yelling in defiance as she watched the IS stab Ichika through the chest. Out of concern Tabane, Houki, and Madoka came into the room, but before they could watch the tape Chifuyu turned off the computer, not wanting the two younger members to see what was on the recording.

"Tabane." Chifuyu got her attention, then stepped closer to her to speak into her ear. "Ichika has been severely injured and kidnapped, I need you to locate him." Tabane's already worried face morphed into one of anger and determination. She nodded and sat down at the computer, already tying away.

After a few agonizing minutes of silence Tabane spoke up. "Got it! A security camera shows two matching IS flying to an old abandoned warehouse. I pinpointed the location on your IS HUD, now get going!" She nearly yelled. She didn't have to say it twice, Chifuyu ran from the room, summoning her IS and flying off to the location... begging to not be too late.

After what felt like centuries, she had finally reached the location, a worn down warehouse with rust covering most of the outer walls, honestly a place perfect to hold kidnapped victims. Other than the few guards in crisp suits standing in front of the large set of doors, there didn't appear to be any other people.

The Kurazakura hovered high over the building, before dropping like a boulder. A loud **SLAM** echoed across the surroundings as pieces of the ground where torn up and thrown in every direction as the IS landed in a standing position, weapons drawn. The guards attempted to draw weapons, but in the blink of an eye their bodies laid dead on the ground cut to shreds, the guards' last screams still echoing through the air. Without the slightest hesitation or care for preparation, the IS shot forward, slicing through the doors of the warehouse like a hot knife through butter. Moonlight shone through the gigantic hole made in the door, eerily lighting the room. Chifuyu took less than a second to survey the room.

There was nothing but a chair stained with blood in the center of the room. Untied ropes surrrounded it. She was too late... whoever had taken Ichika here had moved him. The one lead she had lead to nothing. She had killed all of the terrorists, she couldn't get any information out of them. Fate was cruel. Her focus on getting to Ichika would be the final nail in the coffin for losing him. How could she be so foolish?

"DAMMIT!" Chifuyu roared, dropping to her knees as a wave of emotion finally overtook her.

**A/N:** Hello to any and all who read. Happy New Years! To kick off the year I have published the first chapter of a fanfiction I have been working on for around 3 months. Ya, I probably could have published it much earlier, but I really wanted to make sure it was not only up to quality, but would become a solid part of the story. Ergo, I wanted to make sure I wouldn't have to go back and change the already published chapter. Well, I hope I won't have to do that, but no promises. That being said this is my first try at a fanfiction. I hope you have all enjoyed it to it's fullest and will continue to do so as I update. Next update should be within a week. Fingers crossed.

My thanks to Xenowishes for notifying me of an error in the original upload.

This is AceOfSpades, signing off.


	2. Chapter 2

[P.O.V. - Ichika - January 13th, 8:00 a.m.]

Ichika drifted into and out of consciousness, his mind desperately clawing its way to the surface of consciousness only to be dragged back down by the overwhelming pain erupting from every fiber of his being.

He could only catch a few bits of information his senses could process before he would once again fall into his own mind. But nothing that he heard made much sense to the boy, at first he thought he heard yelling, but then it was drowned out by a loud whirring of… maybe a helicopter… a plane engine?

The next time he was conscious it was very quiet and he could hear talking in the background, though he couldn't force himself to stay awake long enough to figure out what the voices were saying.

_...mmmm… uggghhh… ahh… shit…_ "Ahhh!" Ichika yelled a cry of pain as he regained his consciousness. Pain washed over his body, overwhelming his senses and making him have to fight just to think.

_My body feels so hot, overwhelmingly hot… but… everything is cold at the same time. Am… am I dead? No, being dead wouldn't hurt this much at the very least. So where am I?_

Ichika finally regained his bearings. The first thing he noticed was the absence of his mechanical eye. His hand came up to his face, touching the now empty eye socket. With a grunt he pulled himself up.

He was in a cell, not that he had expected anything less. It was quite large with completely cement walls, it had no windows. The only light in the room was coming from cracks in the doorway, but the small amounts of light were enough to ever so dimly light the room. The room was barren, it looked as though it was brand new. _They must have built a cell especially for me._ He had to admit, there was absolutely nothing in the cell he could work with… mainly because their WAS nothing in the cell.

He himself was in the dead center of the room, his hands and legs were cuffed individually. His legs each had a long chain attached to the ground inches from him. They were clearly there to keep him in a certain area, with enough slack for him to move around most of the room. As for his hands, each one was also attached to a long chain. However, each one of those chains were connected to closed hooks in opposite walls of the cell. In each of the four corners of the room were cameras, mounted on the ceiling. All of which were covered in there own layer of steel bars.

He wore his same clothes, though that wasn't saying much since after his fight they were mostly just shreds of cloth. His entire chest was covered in a thick layer of gauze. Not that he was surprised, his chest felt like it was melting, every time he looked down he was expecting to see his entrails spilling out.

Before he could start examining the room he heard approaching footsteps. Following a few ominous clicks of locks a large cement door was swiftly opened and in walked a relatively tall women. It wasn't one of the pilots that had kidnapped him.

She was caucasian, with long flowing blonde hair. _European, or American._ Her eyes were red, but not the red of Chifuyu or Madokas' eyes, hers were a deep blood red.

"Ichika Orimura." She stated. Ichika, having no reason to respond, continued to analyze her. _Definitely American with that accent._

Perfect posture and scrutinizing eyes, the overall way she held herself. _Military._ But her clothing conflicted with that. She wore casual clothes, but they weren't for practical use. If Ichika had to guess, most people in the military would dress practically over impressively. However the women's clothes were fitted rather to accentuate her body. _Ex-military, then._

"Who are you?" Ichika decided to ask, the more information he could get the better.

He scanned her face, stopping at her right eye. _Mechanical eye._ Unlike his eye, which was now almost 5 years old, her replacement was covered by artificial skin which made it almost impossible to tell the difference, especially from a distance.

The woman continued, ignoring his question. "You are the famous apprentice of Tabane Shinonono, the creator of the IS. This organization is curious just how much she has taught you about her machine."

"Surely you already know where this is going."

"..." _Cores_

"My boss wonders if she has truly taught you all she knows? …If she has… then that would make you more than capable of knowing how to build an IS core… correct?" That is something the entire world had theorized and hounded him about. He was the famous apprentice. The smartest man in the world. But no one knew, besides him and Tabane, just how much he had been taught. He knew what he had been taught… **everything**.

"Let me guess, the leader of Phantom Task wants me to make IS cores, and if I don't… you'll kill me, or maybe torture me?"

"Oh who knows really?" The woman began pacing in front of the door. "I told them that you would never in your life make IS cores for Phantom Task no matter how much you were tortured. Nor would you give up any information on the IS, least of all how to build cores. But they… **insisted**." Ichika made a note to find out who this "they" was.

"You would blindly follow orders? You said that you know that no matter what you do to me I will never do anything or say anything to any of you, but "they" insisted. Why follow a leader who won't even tell their followers why they are doing what they do?"

"Not a bad try, kid. I'll give you credit you do have a silver tongue, but I'm not an idiot." _Worth a shot. I could use a spy in Phantom Task._ He started pulling himself up from the cold cement floor.

"Oh, I wouldn't be getting up If I were you," she said with an emotionless and bitter chuckle. "On second thought, do get up, in fact I'm hoping you try to resist. That'll mean I get to have more…** fun**." He did not like the way she said that last part.

"Your going to be my torturer?"

The woman smiled, which was exceptionally off putting. "Straight to the point, huh?" She lightly chuckled.

"Unfortunately, no. I have been assigned another job for the time being. Your torturer is one of my subordinates. She is very… **enthusiastic** in her job. Luckily for you the wound you got in your fight with those **failures** was nearly fatal. So she has to wait until the wound is healed enough to torture you. Like I said, I'm not stupid. I was ordered to kidnap you for information on how to build an IS core, I can't have you dead. Tortured to the brink of death? Sure. But not dead."_ I won't be tortured until my wound heals enough to not be fatal if it would reopen… meaning I have a few weeks of prime opportunity to escape._

"You will be brought three meals a day to keep you alive. If you put up resistance at any time you will be severely punished for your actions." With that the woman had seemingly finished speaking with him, and left him, closing the door behind her and once again leaving Ichika in the nigh pitchblack room.

[January 16th, 3:22 a.m.]

Ichika sat in his dark cell. He was curled into the fetal position, trying to retain as much heat as possible in a desperate attempt to get any amount of sleep. It seemed as though after days of trying he might be able to find some reprieve until he heard the recognizable clicking of locks.  
It was quickly followed by the sound of the stale air rushing out through an opened door. The small amount of dim light that came through the door blinded him enough to make him look away.

He only heard footsteps accompanied by the sound of chains dragging across the floor. He looked back after his eyes adjusted to the light. A gruff looking man was attaching one end of a chain to the metal hook in the center of the room. The only end of the massive chain was attached to a metal collar which was around the throat of a girl who looked to be slightly older than him.

She was caucasian. Brown hair that was cut extremely unevenly covered her eyes, though in the glimpses he caught he could see hazel brown eyes.

It was to note that the girl had no clothes. Her skin looked like it was turning translucent. It looked like there was no real "flesh" on her body, just bones covered in skin. The girl sat down on the hard floor as far from Ichika as she could get.

If Ichika had any doubt that Phantom Task was an entirely bad organization, he didn't have any now.

Having finished connecting the chains, the man stood up and left the room. The large door slammed loudly as he exited.

Ichika stood up and walked to the girl, who jerked back immediately, only for the chain to stop her. "Ah!" She yelled as the collar around her throat contracted, keeping her within the confines of the chains' length. Ichika stopped in his approach.

"I… mean you no harm." He knelt down to the girls level, slowly reaching out his hand. "Ah!" He grunted as he pulled back his hand, now covered in a bite mark. The girl had a harsh expression on her face, clearly ready to fight for her life.

He held his hands in surrender. "Hey. Hey. Hey." He said in as soothing a tone he could muster. "I mean you no harm." The girl didn't seem to buy it, and Ichika gave up. He walked back across the cell, sitting at the opposite end of the girl.

[8:00 a.m.]

The girl hadn't spoken. Ichika couldn't keep track of time perfectly but it had at least been a few hours. In those long hours he had made numerous attempts to talk to the girl, to no avail.

A series of recognizable clickings drew Ichika's attention to the door. This time to reveal a female figure. The figure didn't speak, but simply stood out of Ichikas' reach, and laid down a tray of what probably passed as edible food. He had been expecting this, they had been bringing him three meals per day, after all they needed to keep him alive to torture him.

The woman slid the tray with a screech across the cement flooring. Another woman had entered after her and laid down a tray on the girls side of the room.

"Eat" They said in unison, sliding the trays into the prisoners' reach. The girl was already gorging herself.

The women didn't leave. They stood still and watched as the cellmates ate their food. There weren't even utensils, meaning both Ichika and the girl were currently eating their food like pigs. After a few minutes of hastily eating, the women told them to slide back the tray, he complied and the girl followed his lead, the women simply picked up the trays and left without a word. The door closed, once again leaving the room in a cooling darkness.

Ichika got up from his position, instantly drawing the attention of the young girl.

He began walking slowly towards the girl, who continued to back up until she was straining against the chain. Ichika stopped in front of the struggling girl, noticing this the girl slowly calmed down. She looked at him with tired, dull brown eyes.

Ichika lifted his hands, the girl flinched, he took off the remnants of his shirt, he held the scraps in his right hand and extended them to the girl. "Here..."

The girl eyed the scraps of shirt in his hand, but looked at him with suspicion. "Take it…"

The girl looked back to the cloth in his hand and eyedit hungrily, but made no attempt to take it. Ichika sighed "Alright." He dropped the cloth onto the floor and turned, walking back to his side of the room.

He sat down. The girl hadn't moved and was still eyeing him, though now it looked more like it was out of curiosity. Her eyes darted to the scrappy shirt on the floor, then back to Ichika. She hesitantly picked it up and put on the remnants of his shirt. Her face seemed to relax slightly with the newfound warmth in the cold cell.

"Now then, I'm going to try to go to sleep. The name is Ichika Orimura by the way." The girls eyes widened, but she stayed quiet. He closed his eye, once again trying to get some sleep.

"A… Amelie." ! His eye opened, he smiled lightly. She had a soft voice, but he couldn't quite pinpoint her accent with just one word, especially only a name.

Ichika got up once again and began walking over to the girl. He sat down next to her, a few feet away. She shifted away a little, but once again made no attempt to get away from him.

"Well, Amelie. It doesn't look like we have much to do here. Care to tell me how you got here?" He sounded kind, and frankly he was curious.

The girl remained silent, she looked at him confused.

She spoke up. "Je ne sais pas ce que vous dites."

"..."

"Shit." That was french… the silky accent was now immediately recognizable. Problem… he didn't speak french. _That makes sense… she must have said her name because she recognized mine, since names are universally recognizable._

"Eh…" He decided to try other languages he knew. "Do you speak English?" He asked in said language. The girl could tell the obvious switch in language, and guessed what he had asked, she shook her head.

"Do you speak Manderin?" Another no. He repeated the question in every language he knew, only to get consecutive no's. *_sigh*... time to learn how to speak French._

"Ah… you." He pointed to her. "Teach me" He pointed to himself. "Speak." He made a gesture of sound coming out of his mouth. "French?" He tried to impersonate her accent on the last word. From that the girl got the concept.

The girl pointed to herself. "Je." She pointed to him. "Vous enseigner." She made the same gesture he had. "Parle Français?"

[9:43 p.m.]

French was surprisingly easier to learn than most languages. Granted he had only just started learning it, and he really couldn't be sure if the words she was teaching him meant what he thought they meant… but he was learning quickly and thought of the words he was learning he probably had more than 90% right.

They had spent all day going through the very basics. The language was very similar to English and he was surprised how quickly that improved his learning rate.

After hours and hours of making motions and hand gestures, then repeatedly saying a word, Ichika decided they had done enough and they both went to bed. They huddled together for warmth on the cold cement floor and after an eternity of shifting and letting his mind wander, Ichika finally fell asleep.

[Dream Sequence (Obligatory Flashback)]

A young boy sprinted down the streets like his life depended on it. Chaos reigned in the city as people ran every which way, all in desperation to get to whatever destination they had in mind. An explosion went off across the street from the boy, leveling multiple buildings instantly, no doubt killing all occupants.

Even across the way he felt the heat sear his skin and char his clothing.

Ignoring the pain he continued his sprint with renewed vigor towards whatever his destination, continuing his trek across the city. Entire buildings were being consumed by flames and explosions.

Suddenly, as if all of the citizens prayers had been answered, it all stopped. No more explosions… silence reigned across the entire city, the entire country, the entire world as every human on the planet held their breath while they waited in anticipation of what had happened. The once drowned out the sound of the boys footsteps now echoed across the city as he became the only person continuing to run.

For only a second he lifted his gaze to glance to the sky. Horror unimaginable greeted the young boy. It looked as though the sky was filled with birds or distant airplanes, but he could tell what they were. Missiles. Dozens… hundreds… thousands at least… maybe even more. All raining down on his homeland. However, that was not what captivated the young boys' gaze.

A flying figure, clad in pure white armor stood opposing the incoming missiles, staring death in the face… without the slightest hint of fear. Dawned in classic armor with a long glowing broadsword in the figures' right hand. Explosions went off in the air as the figure darted at amazing speeds between the missles, slicing them and forcing them to explode mid air.

Some missiles to get passed the figures efforts, only to seemingly veer from their trajectory, stopping mid air and dropping like a chunk of rock to the ground.

Shirokishi, The White Knight, and Ichika Orimura had just gotten the first ever glimpse of the machine that would change the world. He had to get back to his home.

The instant the alarms blared across the country, warning everyone of the oncoming crisis, chaos had ensued. Everyone began darting for the nearest bunkers or any place they believed might keep them safe from the missiles.

Not him. No. He had been at school, or to be more precise in highschool, but that's a story for another time. They had tried to get him to comply with a security protocol, but seriously? Lining up by the walls and ducking into the fetal position and waiting for his imminent demise was not how he was about to spend his last moments alive.

If he was going to die he was as sure as hell going to die with his family. Though now that the figure appeared his priorities had changed.

He had been taken in by a young girl, though she was quite older than him. Chifuyu Orimura. She had rescued him and taken him in, and she and her little sister Madoka had quickly become his family.

It soon became obvious he was not a normal child. His intellect was enormous, and "off the chart" wouldn't summarize it. Due to that Ichika also become close friends with one Tabane Shinonono, a genius in her own right and a girl the same age as Chifuyu. The two hit it off and had been the closest of friends ever since. That was a quick summary of his life after he had been taken in by Chifuyu. Of his life before? Well, he had tried his best to forget.

Tabane had been working on a "secret project", and the second he saw Shirokishi, he suspected his fellow genius's craftsmanship.

However, he was panicking. The machine was being broadcast all over the city, or to be more accurate, all over the planet. In the center of the machine was it's pilot, and even though her body was covered, he had a large hunch on who it was. Chifuyu Orimura.

The one who had taken him in a few months ago and had begun to raise him even though she herself was still a child. The person on Earth that he most respected, most trusted, most loved… a member of his family… risking life and limb for king and country.

He looked away, dedicating fully to his sprint.

Ichika was now running to his and Tabanes' laboratory, which just so happened to be next to the Shinonono residence where he was currently living. It was his favorite place on the entire planet. But more importantly, that was also were all of Ichika and Tabanes' technology and inventions were. Ichika had seen the missiles that were getting past the Shirokishi, and was positive Tabane must've been remotely hacking and disabling the missiles that got past the machine.

Unfortunately, some missiles were still getting past both Shirokishi and Tabane, meeting their trajectory and causing massive explosions. He panted, sucking in as much air as he could as he continued to run as fast as his little body could carry him. He needed to get to the laboratory, he could help hack the missiles. Lives were at stake. Nothing else mattered.

An especially loud explosion went off and Ichika once again looked back to the sky. It was too far away to tell what was happening, so Ichika turned his head to one of the massive television screens that was broadcasting a live feed up close on the figure.

Horror truck his face as he saw the current state the White Knight was in. It's armor was in tatters. The helmet had a massive crack, creating a hole large enough to see a piercing red eye of the pilot, there was no doubt in his mind now, it **was** Chifuyu.

Most of the missile were now gone. Only one remained. Now floating over the ocean, no longer above the city and facing the final incoming missile, the Knight stood still. It turned its head to whatever camera was recording it, seemingly looking at all of humanity, but Ichika could feel that stare and had a strong sense that out of the billions of people… it was looking straight at him.

The glance at the camera only lasted for a second, and the Knight once again turned back to the missle. It's thrusters blasted out energy, the blade lengthened, and the Knight bent into a ready stance as if preparing for a duel. It rushed forward in a dash towards the missile.

Before anyone could see what had happened, a final explosion went off. The effect was massive. Not nuclear explosion massive, but it was definitely larger than he had ever seen in person. He felt a wave of heat wash over him, and looked away as the blinding light flashed, which was saying something considering how far away he was from the explosion.

He looked up at the television, but it was static. Whatever had been recording the Knight had been destroyed. Ichika turned toward where the Knight had last been seen. Nothing… no missiles, but no White Knight either. _Chifuyu…_

The boy prepared to continue running, but dissolved into a blur as the dream shifted.

The scene was now a large room. The most advanced technologies in the world covered the room. In the center was a large desk with two chairs and two sets of computers with holo screens for monitors. A large and long table to the left of the desks was piled high with small models of inventions. To the right of the desk was another massive holoscreen that covered the entire wall, which was currently displaying an image of a brand new IS design.

The notes to the left of the image showed that it now had countless new adjustments and additions. Brand new technology such as the Absolute Barrier or AIC, as well as a connection to the recently created "IS space", along with various other notes on the new design.

Far behind the desk was a circular platform in which the flooring changed to a different metal. Standing on the platform was an IS perfectly resembling that of the one on the holoscreen.

The same boy stood in front of the IS, looking at the creation. The boy glanced to his left to see a very happy looking Tabane. The scene once again dissolved.

The boy was now in the living room of the Shinonono residence.

He was sitting on Chifuyus' lap. On Chifuyus' left was Madoka, sitting in a chair on the right was Tabane. The boy had an extremely giddy look on his face as he held up a small gift in his hand. Chifuyu looked down on him with an extremely rare full smile.

He nervously yet exitedly lifted the gift to her as she took it in her hands, slowly unwrapping the small box.

She lifted away the top covering of the box and pulled out a stunningly beautiful necklace. As she pulled it away from the box you could see what looked like a gem sparkle in the center of the necklace.

The "gem" was lined with what looked like a black metal, it surrounded the gem and kept it in place. Engraved at the top in very small letters was the name KURAZAKURA, on the back glinted the name CHIFUYU ORIMURA. Chifuyu continued to smile, and hugged the little Ichika.

The scene slowly dissolved into blackness as Ichikas' eyes blinked open.

* * *

**A/N:**

I wanted to get this chapter out earlier but since it is the very beginning of the story I have to plan ahead a ridiculous amount so each chapter will correctly lead to the next. Sure I have already stated that I probably will go back and make edits, but I still want the story to not only be cohesive, but enjoyable, entertaining, and genuinely fun to read.

I would like to say that I have read none of the manga. Everything I know about the cannon is just from the 2 seasons of anime or other details I have pieced together from other fanfictions. So I am going to be spitballing quite a lot of this. I mean, seriously, I couldn't even find what form the Kurazakura takes in resting form so I had to make one.

I hate OC's, and I really didn't want to make one, especially this early. However, I have created the plot and needed to create an OC for it to work to its fullest. So bear with me and take heart knowing she won't be a large part of the story. She is a plot device, nothing else. Once she serves her purpose she will no longer be in the story.

Lastly I want to say that the amount of response the first chapter got was astounding. I didn't even expect half of the amount of views, favs, follows, and reviews. Thank you all and I really do hope you continue to story. Sure, at the end of the day I am pretty much writing this for myself, but if I can entertain other people and contribute to the fandom, then why the hell not?

* * *

**Personal Review Replies:**

**Jss2141 & Alternate Reality: **Already responded by DM

**Just Some Guy:** I did not expect a comment like that. That is very flattering and nice to hear. I hope I can contribute a good story to this fanbase.

**Angron: **I wish you hadn't said that, because now I can't stop thinking about it. :)

**YOURLORDANDMASTEROFINTERESTING: **Interesting

**Both "Guests":** Thank you, I am glad you enjoyed it and hope you continue to.

* * *

\- This is AceOfSpades, signing off.


	3. Chapter 3

**[FIVE YEARS LATER]**

[P.O.V. - Madoka - February 24th]

It was a bad day, Madoka concluded, as she continued to walk along the sidewalks along the streets of suburban Tokyo.

Life had been good, although her definition of good had drastically decreased since Ichika had disappeared all those years ago.

It felt like she was missing a part of herself every day.

Like someone had just come up to her one day and stabbed her through the chest, and then expected her to just walk it off if nothing had happened.

She could never remember what happened to her and Chifuyu before Ichika had come into their life, but she didn't care enough to remember either. When she looked back at the 5 years Ichika had lived with her and Chifuyu, it felt like a blur. Like someone had pressed fast forward on her life.

But… now?

Now each day was slow, like swimming through molasses. She felt like she was always fighting against an invisible current, and day by day her will to strain against it was lessening. She was afraid that if something didn't happen soon she would give up… drown… and she was terrified that a part of her was starting to hope she would.

She couldn't imagine how Tabane or Chifuyu felt. Ichika was her adoptive elder brother, and yes, Madoka herself was very close to him. He was the most important person to her. But she knew that however much she cared for Ichika, they both still cared more for him.

Madoka was walking home. There was public transportation all over Tokyo, but she needed the fresh air. After school she had attended her weekly therapy session. Chifuyu meant well when she signed her up, Madoka knew that, but she never liked it. Telling a stranger her most private moments and secrets, just to be told what to do as if they knew her and her problems? She would rather not. She would rather someone just listen to her problems for once, and not force her to follow their "oh so helpful" expert advice.

If anything, she would have liked to talk to Chifuyu or Tabane. But… Chifuyu was not one to be open with these kinds of things. Chifuyu bottling up her emotions always backfired, without fail. Either she would have a breakdown in private or attempt to drink her problems away. For perhaps the only time in her life, Madoka pitied her elder sister.

As forTabane, she always made Madoka slightly uncomfortable for reasons she could never pinpoint. She felt slightly guilty for that. She knew Tabanes eccentric personality made it hard for her to make friends, but she couldn't change her instincts. Whenever she was with Tabane, no matter how nice they were to each other, she felt like she was in danger.

Maybe it was because, in all honesty, Tabane was dangerous. Extremely so. But only to her enemies.

More likely, it was because even though all three of them had changed, Tabane seemed to have changed the most, at least personality wise.

She was cheerful, but it never felt genuine anymore. It felt like she was pushing herself to the absolute maximum to be as smiley and peppy as possible. People that met her would assume that's how she always was. Madoka knew better.

Tabane was incredibly depressed, and without a doubt lonely. Madoka knew that without Ichika constantly hanging out with and working with her… no one was. Tabane lived in her secret layer, away from her family. Her sister resented her, her mother was dead, and her father had never been close to her. She pushed everyone besides Madoka and Chifuyu away.

There were moments, when Tabane visited them, where she felt… unhinged. It was… more than slightly. She didn't know when it started but she was getting very worried for her friend's sanity at this point.

The relationship between herself and Chifuyu hadn't grown whatsoever in the past years, if anything it backpedalled. They weren't the sisters that shared everything with one another and always read each other's mind, they were nearly strangers. Chifuyu would pay the bills and stay at work. She would call her once a week to check in and Madoka would see her in person maybe once every three months. She had gone to Germany for an entire year, the year before last, but Madoka hardly even noticed with how little they talked anyways. It was clear neither of them had any idea how to communicate with each other without Ichika.

Her family was a puzzle with a third of the pieces missing.

It was late and getting cool outside. She stopped for a second just to take a long breath of cool air, then sighed heavily and kept walking home. She found it odd that Chifuyu hadn't called her. She usually called her once a week after her therapy session.

She arrived in front of her house.

After the destruction of the home, they had built an identical copy in its place.

She **usually** liked it. It did **usually** feel like home, but anyone could sense that something was missing. Without Ichika there to live with her and Chifuyu… it felt fake. Like when a visual effects artist brings back a dead actor for a part in a movie. It was completely identical… but at the same time… it just wasn't. Something was just… off.

That one empty room.

In between her and Chifuyu's on the second floor. Completely furnished… but untouched… everything covered in a thick layer of dust. The door was never opened, the window was always kept closed. It stayed bathed in darkness.

The way the house had just a little too much extra space.

A third chair at the dining room table… always there… but always empty.

She snapped out of her thoughts and walked up to the front door, unlocking it with the house key and pushing it open.

Before she even stepped into her home the permeating stench of alcohol bombarded her senseless, and her attitude fell to rock bottom.

She walked in, swiftly closing the door behind her. She took off her shoes and walked to the staircase, taking a glance at the living room. Sure enough, a black out drunk Chifuyu was laying on the couch. She was laying on her stomach, her hair was a mess and she was drooling onto the cushions. One of her heels was next to the couch, the other Madoka couldn't see. Chifuyu had taken off her work clothes, which were now on the floor next to the couch she way lying on.

Madoka gave a look with a mixture of pity and sympathy, since she knew how Chifuyu felt, but also disappointment that her sister had resorted to drowning her problems in alcohol yet again.

She quickly went into her room, changing out of her school uniform into more casual clothes and putting away her backpack. She grabbed her wallet and exited the room, going back through the hall and downstairs.

After walking up the sleeping form of her elder sister she saw a photo frame in her hand. She slowly took the frame out of Chifuyu's hand and observed the picture. She already knew what photo it was, it was Chifuyu's favorite picture.

A teenage Chifuyu stood holding a very young Madoka's little hand. Madoka stood on her left with a huge smile plastered on her face. To the right of Chifuyu was Tabane, and on Tabane's shoulders was Ichika. Everyone was smiling widely and genuinely, a rare moment, especially for Chifuyu. Ichika had strands of Tabanes purple-pink hair in his hands. Everyone was looking at the camera, but he had his eyes closed tight mid-giggle, without a care in the world.

Madoka smiled bitter-sweetly at the memory, and then set the frame back down on the living room table where it belonged. She looked back to face her sister and sighed.

"...Chifuyu…?" She named the sleeping form of her sister. Chifuyu would never allow someone other than her family to see her in this state. The proud and invincible warrior turned into a helpless alcoholic.

"Chifuyu." She stated, and started to shake her sister lightly, only to get no response. This might have been worse than she thought. Even black out drunk, Chifuyu was still a fighter, she would usually instinctively know someone was watching her and wake up, but this time she simply continued to sleep.

"Chifuyu." Madoka raised her voice slightly… nothing. She sighed heavily, but stopped trying to wake her up. She got out her phone and sent her elder sister a text for when she woke up, which read, "Going out to get groceries, be back by 9. The medicine on the table will help with the headache."

After writing the note she set it, a bottle of medicine, and a glass of water on the living room table. Madoka took one more look at the sleeping form of her sister, then turned and exited the house.

* * *

Chifuyu's eyes shot open as her phone rang. She grabbed around until she finally found her phone in her back pocket. She looked at the caller ID. It was… Tabane. Deciding she was not in the mood to deal with her hyperactive, childish friend, she declined the call and repositioned herself on the couch to fall asleep.

Silence took over the house for mere seconds before the loud ring of the phone went off again.

Chifuyu grunted in annoyance as her head spiked in pain from the noise. She harshly grappled for the phone until her hand grasped it, bringing it in front of her face.

It was Tabane, again. Chifuyu was quite annoyed at this point. Her head was killing her and Tabane calling her was not making it any better.

* * *

Madoka was walking along the sidewalk, heading towards the grocery. She had only left a few minutes ago and was almost there as it wasn't far. If she kept up her strid she would be there in a few more minutes, but the ringing in her pocket caused her to pause as she grabbed her phone from her pocket. Though, only half of her phone could actually fit in her pocket, leaving the other half poking out of it.

Sliding the phone out while being cautious not to drop it, she glanced at the screen. Tabane was calling her. That much was enough to tell her something was off. Tabane didn't call, she texted. Even if she did call, which was rare, it certainly wouldn't be her.

She answered the call after concluding Tabane must have a good reason to call her. Bringing the phone to her ear, she began her walk to the grocery store.

"Madoka!" Madoka stopped, having only barely started walking. The urgency and seriousness in Tabanes voice was very out of character, that alone was alarming. Not to mention Tabane said "Madoka", not one of those ridiculous nicknames Tabane would call her friends.

"Ya?"

"I need you to get Chifuyu on the phone, NOW!"

"Wh-" "Now, Madoka! It's Ichika, I think I found him."

Now **that** got Madoka's attention.

They had all searched for him since he had gone missing, but never found anything. Well, primarily Tabane and Chifuyu had looked. Madoka wanted to help but Chifuyu made it clear she was not allowed, since it could be dangerous. However, in the past year, Chifuyu seemed to have become so depressed she stopped trying to find him.

Madoka felt slightly annoyed Tabane had cut her off, but any annoyance instantly disappeared at the mention of Ichika. The moment Tabane mentioned him, she had turned on a dime and began sprinting back to her home, running through crosswalks and bumping other pedestrians in the process.

Ignoring the various yells and few curses thrown her way, she continued her spirit back to the Orimura household. It took less than five minutes to reach her house, but it felt like a lifetime.

"Chifuyu!" Madoka yelled while panting. Completely out of breath from pushing herself so hard, she threw open the front door, running to the passed out form of her sister on the couch.

"CHIFUYU!" Madoka called her sister's name as she tried to shake her awake, to no avail. Chifuyu seemed to have drunken herself into a blackout.

"CHIFUYU!" Madoka screamed at the top of her lungs as she shook the disheveled body of her elder sister. With a lot of effort, and a little luck, Madoka was finally successful in waking her sister.

Groggily sitting up whilst pinching the bridge of her nose, the twice brunhilde finally woke, clearly severely annoyed that she was stirred from her slumber.

"What?!" Chifuyu barked through slurred speech before even opening her eyes, making Madoka flinch.

"It's- It's Tabane, she thinks she has found Ichika." Madoka had tried her best to speak calmly and clearly, hardly succeeding on either front. She was still panting from her run to the home, and her mind was beyond hectic in thoughts. She extended the phone to Chifuyu, who had gone wide eyed when she mentioned Ichika.

"CHIFUYU!" Tabane yelled through the phone as Chifuyu grimaced in annoyance and moved her head away from the speaker.

"SHUT UP! You said you think you found Ichika!? Explain!" Chifuyu outright demanded. Even in her drunken state, she knew she was being harsh, but manners was not what was important right now, nor were they ever her forte.

Madoka was standing a few feet from her sister, with her hands on her knees as she panted while doing her best to follow the conversation. The thought to sit down on the couch or floor never even coming to her mind, the thoughts of her adoptive brother possibly being alive overriding any other thought. She was zoning out, and heard very little of the conversation between her sister and the inventor. From what she gathered Tabane had reason to believe she found Phantom Tasks maximum security prison, in which Ichika would be held, assuming he is still alive.

After regaining her composure, Madoka could hear Tabane and Chifuyu arguing. Chifuyu was insisting she would leave immediately, whilst Tabane was arguing caution. Tabane being the voice of reason was an immediate cause for her to worry. Chifuyu hung up, reaching her limit of annoyance with Tabane. As she made way for the door, Madoka ran up and stood in her way.

"Chifuyu! I know you want to go get Ichika, and believe me, I want nothing more than to get him back, but we have to be patient! You are in no condition to-" Madoka was cut off as Chifuyu shoved her out of the way, exiting the house.

"Chifuyu!" Madoka got up and followed her sister outside the house.

Madoka continued to yell in protest at her sister, to no avail. In a quick flash of light, the legendary armor of the Kurazakura appeared on Chifuyu. With the sound equivalent of a bullet from a gun, the IS shot off into the sky above Tokyo, breaking the windows of the surrounding houses in the process.

* * *

She was acting irrationally. Extremely irrationally, and very out of character. Chifuyu knew that. She wasn't a genius, far from being as intelligent as Tabane or Ichika, but she was also far from an idiot. This was a bad decision. Rushing in blind to a place with an unknown amount of enemies. Sure, Tabane said her scans had indicated no more than a few dozen guards in total, and no IS. But… technology… is technology… and, especially in current times, technology is easily fooled.

There were a dozen ways this could turn south. But this was something she couldn't just not do.

She was a Brunhilde. She was **the** Brunhilde. The peak of strength and the strongest women under the heavens, or so they said. The one thing she wanted more than anything was to get Ichika back. It had been five long years without him, and now that Tabane had given her reason to believe he was alive, she couldn't make herself turn back, no matter how many times her mind told her she was making a foolish decision.

She was the strongest. She could do this. She **had** to do this, and any doubt she had was completely overridden by her current depressed, drunken, and desperate, state of mind.

She had gotten lucky, or unlucky, depending on how you thought about it. Before Chifuyu had hung up, Tabane made the mistake of telling her where she thought Ichika was being held, meaning she could fly to the exact coordinates. Without that information, she wouldn't have been able to go after him.

But with the information? She had relayed the coordinates to her IS's navigation system, and would arrive in minutes. The fact that Ichika had been held so close infuriated her to no end.

* * *

Chifuyu had tried desperately to take control of her emotions. She had not been successful to say the least, and just when she thought she had, the building in which Ichika was being held came into view. Her emotions spiked, and her rage burned brighter than the sun.

It was in the middle of nowhere, although she was going so fast it had only been a few seconds since she whisked past the last building.

There was a large pair of cement doors in a dugout of a hill, to which she assumed lead into an underground bunker of some kind.

She could land and simply cut down the doors and walk in, but she wanted to waste no time. Besides, that would only take away the element of surprise.

Making up her mind, the engines of the Kurazakura flared as it shot towards the ground a few meters past the large pair of doors.

It seemed like the IS would simply crash into the ground and get its pilot killed, but the second it made contact with the ground, it gave way. The few feet of ground acting as a ceiling to the underground bunker gave way, and the Kurazakura broke through, slamming to the floor and cracking the cement.

Chifuyu glanced around, clearly confused. Above her was the hole she had created, streaming in moonlight. The problem was the hole was the only thing lighting the room. The bunker was completely dark, and something was interfering with her IS's sensors.

IS's sensors or not, she still had instincts. Instincts she was glad to have, as she maneuvered her IS blade behind her, sloppily blocking a surprisingly powerful strike.

* * *

**Very Long A/N (TL;DR at bottom if you want to skip):**

I'm a senior in highschool… so I had some pretty major plans for 2020 until Coronavirus FUCKED MY SHIT.

My plans for this year have gone off the rails. My last semester of highschool was whack, but I have my diploma now, and all of that is behind me.

I had planned to publish the first chapter of my fanfiction on January 1st, right at the beginning of this year. Then, I would continue to update every other week and hopefully finish the story by the end of 2020.

Suffice to say that hasn't happened, but I do have some good news. I never planned to publish this, so I began writing the story in the middle, but this chapter completes the chronological gap I had. That means that I now have the next seven chapters already written. So, besides a few adjustments, and maybe a few small cuts and additions, they are already done.

I will never give myself specific dates for updates since I think giving yourself a time limit, limits creativity as well. But I still hope I can tell this story by the end of this year, since well… I have many more ideas. I mean, I have like 3 other ideas for just IS fanfictions.

I have one specific idea for a story that I think would be great, but I've seen how things go on this site. All the unfinished fanfictions. Now I ain't badgerin' on all the people who have started a fiction and not finished them, most of my favorite fictions have gone unfinished, and I make no promises that I won't get bored as well and stop this fiction. But I don't want that to happen.

*sigh* OK. All that outta the way, about this fiction specifically.

I got rid of the chapter names, simply replacing them with numbered chapters. I may change it back in the future, idfk. I had names for later chapters that I felt gave away bits of the story, so that's why I made the change.

I already have outtakes, different versions of chapters, or events that I feel didn't really fit into place. I will have more in the future, assuredly. My question, would you like to see them? If you say yes I will post them in an entirely different fiction that you can access through my author's page.

I had to google how to spell "assuredly" in the last paragraph. It still doesn't look right. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

The reason I wanted to write this story altogether was the amount of wasted potential in this anime is almost sickening. Chifuyu is a bitch of a sister. The girls don't feel like his friends, they feel like his captures. Ichika himself has so little backbone I'm surprised he can physically stand. I just feel like if they had taken this story more seriously, taken away some of the "Haha the main character is a fucking idiot, lmao", then this story could've been amazing. When nearly every character is introduced, they sound interesting. A championship kendo practitioner? That's dope. Two heirs to IS manufacturing corporations? I'm down. A fucking genetically engineered supersoldier? Hell ya! But the interesting background of all of the girls are pointless, because they feel so one-dimensional. As if the only character trait they all have is that they have a crush on Ichika.

I've digressed from my original point of my Author's Note.

In this chapter, I was trying to show just how much of a toll Ichika being gone has taken on the characters. Chifuyu may put up a good front in public, but in reality she lost the most important person to her and is absolutely shattered and exhausted.

My original plan was for this chapter to show a failed attempt at Ichika escaping, but for the life of me I couldn't write it while also making it fun and interesting to write/read. I wanted to show Ichika failing, and I'll still mention failed escape attempts in the future, but the failed attempt I wrote just wasn't good enough for me or my audience.

**TL;DR: My timetable for this story has been screwed up, but I still have high hopes for it.**

* * *

**Personal Review Replies:**

**HowLife:** Thank you for your offer, but I actually have little interest in the actual manga. I'm just not a manga guy, maybe I'll read it in the future, maybe not. Idk. But I appreciate your offer.

**Dat Guy:** You'll have to see. I don't give hints, and I don't give spoilers. Them's the rules. :)

**Angron & Ghostflint:** While the idea is very entertaining to think about, and while I can promise you Ichika will be making trinkets to keep some tricks up his sleeves, Ichika is a good person in this story, so him turning to the "dark side" isn't something that will happen. He is by no means perfect but he is far from evil. Now, that being said there will likely be times in this story where Ichika's morals are questioned or even compromised. There will be darker moments. I do constantly imagine Ichika being thrown into the Star Wars universe. How bout' that new season of Clone Wars? My opinion? The first two arcs were okay, the last arc was perfect.

**Nicky:** Hahahaha. You expected a dead fanfiction, but it was me, DIO!


	4. Chapter 4

[February 28th, Midnight]

[P.O.V. - Narrator]

A young man lay asleep in his cell. His now long black hair covering his face and spreading across his upper body. His clothes had fallen off long ago after being torn to shreds after the years, leaving him stark naked. The man had a layer of dried blood and muck that covered his skin. If one could see his skin, they would look away from the horror that 5 years of torture had created. There wasn't one spot on the body that was spared, layers upon layers of scar tissue made up the man's skin, all of which had different levels of fading, but some were clearly very fresh.

The face may have been the only reprieve, it had the same amount of scars, however the man was still quite handsome. Along with the scars, a rugged jaw and fierce facial expression gave the young man a very intimidating look. His eye, once with a warm glow of a fire, was now that of a raging fire which only drove home the "Touch me and I'll kill you" look. Where his mechanical eye used to be was now an empty eye socket.

The man was startled awake by the formidable unlocking of the door, the sound that now haunted all of his nightmares. He quickly slipped something into his mouth.

Many things about Ichika had changed. The amount of pain he had undergone was ludicrous. His mental strength may have been incredibly strong, but after 12 months of constant pain and suffering, his body simply couldn't take it. Psychosis, or what most people call, insanity. As a last reprieve from all of the pain, his mind collapsed on itself, and shattered. It took Ichika three long years of emptiness to pick up the broken pieces of his own mind and put them back together as best he could. But was he even Ichika? He couldn't really say.

It felt as though he had been born again. Sure he still bore the same name but it was like a memory long forgotten. Ever since he had reconstructed himself his memories felt like those of another. Sure he was still the same person, same body, the same genius with the same experiences… but at the same time… he wasn't. He didn't know what he was. What were his preferences? The new him had never been out of this prison. What type of person was he? He never had a chance to interact with anyone outside besides his now long dead cellmate. Everything was still only pain. Life was pain, and frankly… he was sick of it.

He sat up, and then remained still. The woman, the bane of his existence, once more opened the door.

His torturer.

The woman was caucasian, with hair and eyes of an unnatural orange. Average height of a woman her age. Her japanese was fluent, but she knew Ichika spoke english, and always preferred her native tongue. She would speak American English, so Ichika always assumed that was where she was from.

In all honesty she would have been beautiful, but her eyes ruined the image. It wasn't their odd color, it was the look they held. The insane look in her eyes complimented her sadistic nature very well. Or very horribly, depending on your point of view.

Autumn. Or so the guards called her. He didn't know if that was an alias or her real name, but frankly he couldn't find a shit to give. She, along with her commanding terrorist, Squall, had been the banes of his existence for the past years. Sure, he had been a thorn in their sides as well, but those were stories for another time.

A cool chuckle came from the woman as she stepped into the room.

"Good news, boy." The devil said.

That was not good news.

The devil being happy meant a worse day of torture for him, he had learnt that all too well.

"Orders from the top say I get to kill you today. Boss wants me to kill you immediately… I don't care what she says. I want to have some fun first."

He had waited years for the proper opportunity to escape. He had attempted several times, and come close to quite a few. Unfortunately, he had failed as many times as he had tried. The rotting corpse at the other end of the large cell was an attribute to his failures. As was what he had slipped into his mouth.

_I need to buy time to think._

"Why kill me now?" Ichika's voice was not the voice of a child. It was much deeper than before. It sounded scratchy from all the years of screaming from torture.

_If I ever escape, it has to be now… I no longer have a choice. Escape... or die trying. I can count on the fact that they are planning on killing me. How can I use that information?_

"Don't know, don't care."

_If they are planning on killing me, they will have likely lowered the amount of guards around me. No reason to waste man power guarding a soon to be dead man right? That's a lot to assume… No… I no longer care. I've been cautious and not attempted an escape due to the fact that I could die in the act. But if I am not successful in this escape, I die._

"You're not curious?"

_She said she wants to torture me before she kills me. Probably torture me to death. That means she will take me to the torture room. The other guards usually stand outside because they can't stomach it. I'll make my move then._

"Don't think I don't know what you are trying to do, kid. Keep me talking, right? Say, have you thought of a plan to escape yet?"

"Nope." _Yes. Screw the risks. Consequence be damned. I will do this, I MUST do this…. This is my chance, and I'm not going to get another one. Can't fuck this up._

Autumn audibly laughed as guards walked in, closing the door behind them, starting the routine that Ichika knew all too well.

"Sure. I'm not an idiot. Try to get out of those cuffs, and my 'friends' will repaint this cell with your intestines. Though I admit, I would enjoy watching that." There was that insane look in her eyes again. Ichika might have been intimidated, if he had the energy to spare.

Ichika held out his hands, waiting for the guards to cuff themselves to him to make sure he wouldn't escape while they walked him to the torture chamber. But it appeared as though that wouldn't happen this time as they brought in and began to assemble the torture chamber about 30 feet to his left. _They don't want to take the time to lead me to the torture chamber because Autumn plans on killing me this time…Damn. Well my chances of succeeding just plummeted._

One guard began setting up his own metal cross with chains attached at all ends that would keep him tied down so Autumn could once again torture him, though this time it would be to the death. Meanwhile the other kept his gun aimed straight at Ichika.

_I have at the very most a few minutes before the guard is done setting up. If he gets done and I am chained down… that's it… gotta make my attempt before then. Shit, that isn't much time to make a life or death plan. _He began analyzing what he had to work with, keeping his head down so they wouldn't notice his odd behavior. _Damn, the only stuff I have to work with is the chain and myself… if I can get one of their guns or Autumn's knife my chances of at least escaping my room/cell are basically 100%. Unfortunately those are also problems, sure those will be valuable assets if I can get my hands on them, but if I get shot or stabbed this escape will be over before it begins._

The guard with the gun was asked a question by the other guards setting up the torture devices. As he turned his head Ichika tilted his head down as his face was covered in hair. Something fell out of his mouth and onto the floor in between his lap.

He scooted up as the guard looked back to him, pointing his gun right at his head.

Behind his back, Ichika began moving his hands, revealing the object that had been in his mouth… a small bone. Ichika had been waiting a while for another escape attempt after he thought of a way to escape. He finally had the idea of picking the lock of the chains around his hands and legs with a small bone broken off of…. his former cellmates….rotting corpse.

After a few seconds of fiddling the chains slid clean off his hands onto the floor. Ichika wrapped his wrists around the chains.

"Hey!" The guard yelled as he spotted movement. He moved towards Ichika with haste.

Autumn yelled to warn the guard to not get near Ichika, but it was too late.

Time seemed to melt into liquid just as the guards momentum carried him closer to Ichika. The other guard turned around to see why Autumn was yelling at his comrade. The guard and Autumn started to raise their weapons at Ichika, knowing what was about to happen, but they were too late.

Ichika took the chance. It was his last… his very last. It was escape or death, and he knew it. He leaped at the guard before he could react, not even hitting the ground before he slammed his shoulder into him. In less than a second he pushed the gun out of the way with his left hand and turned the man so he was standing in front of him in an armlock, the chain that Ichika had wrapped around his hand now choking the man. The second guard and Autumn fired at Ichika, not caring if they hit their comrade. The bullets went straight into the guards chest, but Ichika knew from experience all the guards had bullet proof vests. While continuing to choke the guard, Ichika pried the gun out of his hand. Autumn and "guard #2" were continuing to fire at Ichika, but the guard he had trapped was continuing to take the hits.

Ichika brought up the gun and fired at "guard #1" and Autumn's legs, knowing he might not be accurate enough to hit their heads. The plan worked, and soon both fell to the floor in a cry of pain, the man in Ichika's arms slumping unconscious to the ground. Ichika shot the foolish guard in the back of the head, eliminating him from the equation.

In that moment he realized he answered a question about the new him that he never even asked. Was he prepared to take a life? He now had his answer. Without hesitation.

Ichika snagged the guard's secondary weapon, a black handgun that Ichika didn't recognize.

He swiftly ran to the two downed terrorists. Autumn tried to bring up her gun but Ichika kicked it away. He turned slightly and shot guard #2 in the head, yet again making sure of the elimination of a potential threat.

"The keys!" Ichika yelled at Autumn, grabbing the back of his head and placing the barrel of the handgun at Autumn's forehead.

"Nev- but he interrupted himself by yelling in a scream of pain as Ichika shot her in the hand.

"I am not a patient man Autumn." Ichika said. "I don't **need** or **want** you alive, but give me the keys… and I will let you live."

Autumn considered it for a moment, then foolishly obeyed, handing over the keys to the cuffs.

"Thanks." Ichika deadpanned as he raised the handgun and shot her in the stomach. He wanted so badly to keep Autumn alive and torture her, to pay him back for the **HELL** Ichika had gone through, but time was important right now. The other guards outside his cell would have heard the gunshots and definitely know something was wrong. Sure enough, Ichika heard the door clicking open.

_Y'know, I think the walls do look much better with the new paint job._ Ichika thought as he took one of the male guards' bullet proof vests. He heard a female groaning, indicating that Autumn was still alive.

_No time…_ He thought. He had to be fast, every millisecond counted. Chances are she would die anyway. He had to move, now!

He unlocked his legs from their chains and ran to the door, positioning himself so once it opened he would be behind it. As the last lock clicked in place, the huge door was swung open to his right. Guards from the hallway rushed in to see what happened, Ichika didn't care enough to count how many, maybe a dozen? It didn't matter, he had already started.

As the guards were distracted by the scene in front of them, he open fired with both weapons while running at the closest guard to him. Most shots from the guards were poorly aimed since at first they didn't know what was happening, this gave Ichika the advantage he needed. The few well placed shots by the guards hit him in the chest, them not expecting the vest he now wore. However, his shots quickly dropped the majority of the guards. The guard he had rushed at had been surprised and didn't even shoot. He aimed his handgun at a female guard and pulled the trigger. *Click* _Shit. _Ichika thought as he realized the handgun was out of bullets. He hit her on the head with the butt of the gun and kicked her at the remaining two, knocking the two down and getting her caught in the crossfire.

He shot one guard dead, grabbing the other by her vest, pulling her face inches from his. "Tell me where the exit is." he demanded. "NOW!"

"What?"

Where is the exit of this facility?!"

"Th-The elevator. It's the only way in and out of each floor to prevent escapees. It goes to the different levels of the prison, the top floor is the only surface level." The guard stuttered out.

"G-Go straight from this cell, then take the first right."

_Only one exit and entrance, that's going to make things harder._

He shoved the guard down and shot her through the head, not taking any chances.

Ichika went to a fallen male guard, stripping him as fast as he could and clothing himself in the man's uniform, including his holster. He didn't want to waste time, but frankly it would allow him to carry more. Which he soon proved by trading his guns for the man's, and strapping the man's extra ammo to himself. Dashing over, Ichika grabbed Autumn's knife, strapping it to his right side tucked under his belt. Guns weren't really his forte, yes they were deadly but only with accuracy. If he was going to take on possibly armies worth of guards to escape, he needed weapons he had skill with.

**MMMH! MMMH! MMMH!** The facility's alarm began blaring as Ichika began a stream of curses.

_And there goes my chance to look for better weaponry. Now I'm seriously on a time crunch… _

He glanced out the hallway, making sure that he was prepared for when he exited the cell, but the hallway appeared empty. _Shiiit… I know I killed a lot of guards when they rushed in, but there's no way there weren't at least some left in the hallway… Could be a trap… No they know that wouldn't work on me. Did they order an Evacuation? Possibly. _He thought as he grabbed a grenade from a downed guard, ran out of his cell and chucked it back in.

_That should take care of any that managed to survive._

As he got to the end of the hallway It split into two. He backed to the right side of the hallway, looking at the left hallway. It was long, and appeared to have more splits into even more halls, and at the end were guards running from hallway to hallway, none noticing his presence. _Everyone is in disarray from the evacuation. Finally, some GOOD luck. _

He arched his head over the wall and looked at the right hallway. It was just as long, with the same L.E.D. lighting as the rest of the facility. However, at the back of the hall was just a dead end, with large elevator doors in the center. There were about 10 guards standing at attention at the doors, facing straight at the hallway that led back to Ichika's cell. But Ichika saw something that gave him a huge confidence boost, two guards standing opposite to each other with one tachi strapped to each of their sides.

_They must know I've escaped my cell, otherwise they wouldn't bother guarding the door. If I can just get my hands on those swords, my chances of escape will skyrocket. My guess is they have them in case they need to engage in combat in the elevator, then they would have a close combat weapon. They may be the more "advanced" guards then, I'll just have to make sure not to get stuck in the elevator with those two. _

The guards at the elevator saw Ichika peeking at the side of the wall and raised their firearms. He ducked back into the hallway just in time as bullets collided with the corner he was just peering out of, blowing chunks off the concrete. _Damn, I'm fast… but not fast enough to survive running straight down a long hallway whilst getting shot at by 10 guards. Alright, back to the drawing board. What do I have to work with?_

_Guard Uniform _

_Handgun with full ammo _

_Full-Semi Assault Rifle with… I don't know how much ammo left but assuming the guard that had it was firing the whole time I was fighting them, it might be half-full. Better just use the extra ammo I picked up now to reload it than just guess how much is left._

_Extra Ammo_

_A knife that is… maybe 10 inches long?_

_Not much. _He thought whilst re-loading the Semi-Auto. _But enough. I'll have to use the corner as cover. _Ichika awkwardly faced the wall, placing the handgun on the ground for the moment so he could focus on aiming the Assault Rifle. He leaned over the corner, opening fire on the guard down the hallway, by the time they fired back he had already ducked back behind the corner.

The remaining guards began running toward him, knowing they couldn't hit him from their angle, but Ichika was prepared for that. Ichika snatched up the handgun from the ground and threw it across the hallway. His distraction worked, at the first sign of movement the guards began shooting at what they thought was Ichika. The young man ran out as the guards were shooting at the gun in the air, they saw him come out and attempted to adjust their aim, but it didn't matter, it took less than a second for him to mow them down.

Ichika dropped the Assault Rifle, he grabbed both tachi's and slipped one in between his belt and left hip.

After snagging his handgun and re-holstered it, Ichika raced to the elevator, slamming his palm on the "Up" button and turning around. The guards from what was once the hallway to his left were now hundreds of feet from him in the same hallway. They had heard the obvious gunfire, but only a few started running to the elevator to try to stop him, the others ignored the gunfire and proceeded to evacuate.

The elevator opened and Ichika turned and stepped inside what was luckily an empty elevator, turning and standing at the side of the door. The incoming guards began firing at the open elevator, tearing up the back of the elevator. Ichika stood on the railings in the corner of the elevator and unhatched the hatch to the roof. He pulled himself up so he stood atop the elevator, the eerily lit shaft above him. The doors closed just after one lucky guard slipped through the doors, looking around confused before Ichika drew his handgun and shot the man straight through the top of his head. The guard fell on the floor as blood and brain matter flowed out of his now open head.

Ichika jumped down, surveying the floor numbers and pressing the top number. _7 Basement Floors…huh… wonder just how many prisoners they have in this place? Ok… focus… this is the hardest part of the escape considering there's no telling how many guards there will be. _Ichika put the handgun back into the "belt" and drew both swords. With a SHHHING they came out of their sheaths, their blades glinting off of them.

_That seemed easy. Too easy, actually. I've tried so many times to escape this place. Did the fact that they are distracted really cause this much of a difference? Is the only reason this escape attempt has been so much more successful just because that little alarm went off?_

Ichika steadied his breathing. He could feel the adrenaline pumping through his veins. He hadn't felt this good in years. It was like he could crush an IS with his bare hands or outrun one on only his feet. Of course that was an over exaggeration, but it still felt damn good to be 'high on hormones', so to speak.

He took a glance at the sign above the metal doors.

**F4**

Ichika looked at the open hatch on the top of the elevator.

_Shit._

Space left in the empty elevator shaft was disappearing just as fast as the elevator was moving upward.

_I have to exit through the doors… Can't risk getting crushed in between the elevator and whatever ceiling there is. I won't have any element of surprise. They're probably waiting right outside guns loaded…._

Recognizing his situation, Ichika took a ready stance. He swapped one of his tachis for the handgun in his holster. He put the second tachi back into its sheath, then slipped it through his "belt".

Legs bent and on his toes, ready to sprint out the door at full speed. Arms raised. In his right hand he held one of the tachis in a forward guard position, in his left hand he held out the handgun, which only had a handful of shots left.

* * *

The elevator doors slid open as Ichika barely had time to duck behind the interior walls of the elevator.

In the mere glimpse he had taken in the details of the room. It looked like the control room, from what he gathered, which made sense considering it was on the top floor, making it the easiest place for guards to get to and the hardest for prisoners.

Directly across from him was various sets of massive monitors, each with people in front of them typing away. Behind all of them in the center of the room was a circular pedestal, upon which a woman with blonde hair stood, shouting orders at the room's occupants.

_Squall. _Even when thinking of the name it was thought with disgust.

There was a pair of guards right next to the elevator.

Of course all of the talking and yelling in the room had immediately gone silent when the elevator opened.

Ichika could hear the guards shuffling on the other side of the elevator door. The clicking of firearms and the drawing of swords from there sheaths.

If he could get rid of the guards that would probably be i.t He doubted any of the people at the computers could actually fight, let alone at his level of skill.

Squall was a wild card. He knew she was the leader of the facility, but he had never actually seen her fight. If her skill level was reminiscent of her position as leader, she could give him trouble. He was still confident in his ability to take her down though.

But there was one glaring issue.

_Where are the IS guards?_

Ichika knew that Phantom Task was in desperate need of IS suits, but the higher ups must've given a pair of guards IS units, because they were the main reason he had never been able to escape before. There was usually at least one guarding his cell specifically. They were the ones that always stopped him… so….

_Where are they?... Does it matter? This is the final hurdle. As long as they don't get in my way, I can't waste time thinking or caring about where they are._

A pair of guards walked into the area in front of the open elevator doors, aiming their guns at the seemingly empty elevator. As that pair of guards covered, the other guards that lined the outside walls then began to shuffle towards the open doors.

A guard turned the corner of the wall and entered the elevator with his semi-auto aimed ahead of him, prepared to survey the elevator. The second his foot crossed the open doors threshold. His head seemingly vanished, only for it to be heard falling onto the floor. The gun dropped to the ground with a **thunk**.

Ichika dropped the blade in his hand and propped the corpse up in front of him.

The guards fired into the elevator.

As he felt the hail of bullets hit the corpse and heard the thunder of guns, Ichika charged forward with the body in front of him absorbing the shots.

Taking aim, he swiftly killed the two guards that were shooting at him.

Moving completely out of the elevator he shoved the body-shield to his left, and shot straight through the head of all three of the guards to the right.

He took a glance at the center of the room and could see Squall going for her holster.

He turned completely to his left and shot at the guards, intending to finish them in the same fashion he had the other three, only for his aim to be off enough for the last one to survive. Without a moment's hesitation he lunged forward and sliced straight through the barrel of the gun, kicking the man in the stomach and making his body hunch over as it fell back, only for Ichika to swiftly relieve him of his head.

Ichika refocused on Squall. He had been very quick through the whole process, but she was already aiming her pistol straight for him. He lunged forward at an angle, rolling on the floor as he heard the loud **bang** of the firearm. His adrenaline was pumping too hard for him to tell if he'd been hit, adding on the fact that that wasn't what he was focused on.

Finishing the roll and coming up into a full on sprint he zig zagged across the floor, doing his best to avoid the bullets while gaining ground towards Squall.

His brain was moving in overdrive. He could count the millimeters he was from Squall.

10 feet…. Squall dropped her gun. He was sure she was planning on activating an IS, only for her to draw a katana from her back.

5 feet….. The katana had quite a longer blade, but the tachi had significant curvature. Ichika would have to keep the fight up close and personal, that would give him the advantage.

0… Squall brought the katana in front of her and readied the blade. On his last lunge, Ichika jumped straight at her, both hands wrapped tightly around the hilt of his blade.

Both Ichika and Squall could hear Ichika's blade cut through the air as he slashed downward with all his strength.

Instead of the loud clang he expected, a far too cheerful **ding **reverberated around the room as the blades connected.

* * *

The remnants of the room, meaning those who had been working at their computer stations, began panicking. A few continued to type frantically at the computers while the rest dashed for the closest exits of the room.

* * *

From the second their blades had met, Squall knew she was outmatched. He was simply out of her league. He was a malnourished prisoner that had been tortured daily for half a decade. She had never fought him personally, but she saw how skilled he was in his previous escape attempts. Of course there was the obvious reason of where the majority of the guards were, and she knew it was important, but the way Ichikas' current escape was going, he would be successful.

She could see it in his eye. They looked less fierce and closer to a tired and… slightly bored… expression. She was in the fight for her life and he was only fighting with his instincts, not even thinking about the fight at hand.

She could see his eye darting around, the gears turning at lighting speed trying to come up with something that would end their duel as soon as possible.

Not that she thought she was doing poorly. Her opponent fought two IS units at 10 years old and didn't die, which was very impressive. In comparison, the fact that she was holding him off was an attribute to her skills. Granted, she had no doubt that the only reason she was still alive was because her opponent was at a physical, mental, emotional, etc, etc. Anyways her opponent was basically at absolute zero when it came to all the 'als'.

Ichika used the curve of his blade against her, and got a thin but deep cut on her leg. She gave a small yelp of pain, fueling the next swing of her katana with fresh anger. The power behind the strike seemingly caught Ichika off guard as he was shoved back slightly, only to rush her with renewed vigor, striking vertically at her angled guard.

* * *

Many had evacuated the facility. The prisoners on all floors of the facility were still locked in their cells. Any who had begun to escape in the chaos Ichika was causing had been gunned down mercilessly.

Guards were dashing through the large hallways, carrying large boxes. For what reason was indiscernible.

Inmates screamed at them, banging on their cell walls or bars, which resulted in **clanging** and **thudding** sounding along the entirety of the facility.

* * *

Ichika had made a quick pattern. He would push back Squall, and in the time that the little ground now between them gave, he would kill one of her subordinates still in the room.

The control room was a complete mess. A few of the people who had previously been at computers had gotten lucky and fled before Ichika could kill them; those who couldn't escape now layed dead, coating the floor with a thick layer of fresh blood that oozed from their bodies.

One wall of the room had a large hole in it, caused by Squall throwing a grenade at Ichika, only for him to dodge.

Outside was another story entirely.

It looked to be in the wilderness. The facility was surrounded by flora and fauna. Birds could be heard chirping. A flock of birds flew away from the trees as the harsh scraping of interlocked swords sounded in the area.

Ichika was squinting harshly while fighting Squall, finally in the light of the sun after so many years.

The fight was coming to an end, that much both participants could tell. Squall was running on fumes, and even though Ichika looked tired himself, she knew it wasn't enough.

Squall looked bad. She was covered in fresh cuts and scrapes from their duel, and one especially nasty cut on her left shoulder where a piece of shrapnel had hit her from the grenade. The amount of sweat forming on her brow made it drip into her eyes, constantly messing up her vision. A stream of blood made its way down from a cut on her forehead, down her right cheek, and into her mouth, she could taste the iron in her own blood.

One could debate that Ichika looked worse. He had already looked terrible from all his torture. He looked like a zombie. Large bags under his eye sockets. A few fresh cuts hid themselves amongst his many scars, yet still made themselves known with small trickles of maroon blood. A slightly larger cut on his left arm, where Squall had gotten a clean strike in.

They stood apart, their duel having come to an unofficial intermission that they both desperately needed. Both opponents staring straight at each other's eyes…. or eye, sizing each other up.

Ichika raised his blade, which dripped blood onto the green grass beneath his feet. He took a deep breath and went in for the finish, making a bold strike to Squalls left side, which he had observed to be the weakest.

**Clang**. Squall stood with firm ground as she blocked the strike to her left thigh. Spinning to her left and almost dancing with her footing, she aimed to decapitate Ichika.

**Whoosh. **Ichika rolled forward, and her blade met with nothing but open air.

Ichika stood up facing a tree, and turned around as hastily as he could. Squall charged Ichika, blade raised and prepared to slice him in two. Ichika charged Squall with his blade raised, surprising her. With the longer blade she would come on top, there was no doubt, so why would he charge? Then Ichika took one long stride and stopped dead in his tracks, bending his legs.

_Wait. _Was all Squall thought as Ichika leaped straight into the air. She saw the trap too late. Her momentum was carrying her forward, she didn't have time to reposition her blade to defend herself.

In one fluid motion, Ichika twirled in the air, slicing straight through Squalls' right arm.

"**AAAAHHH!**" Squall shrieked in pain as she fell onto the grass. It felt like someone had stuck her arm in lava. The fiery pain seemed to grow more intense with each passing second. She couldn't think. All thoughts about where she was or what she was doing vanished. Her concentration was nonexistent. She could feel her body getting wet from the blood that was pouring out of what remained of her right arm, which wasn't much.

Squall slowly began crawling away from Ichika, managing to prop herself up against a tree.

Oddly enough, the pain was lessening, as if someone had finally taken burning coals off her shoulder. But that was just the bloodloss.

Her right arm now rested in the grass a few feet away, still clutching the katana.

Ichika walked to her, preparing to finally strike her down.

He gazed down on her with a glare she would not wish to see again. It did not make her feel like he was a predator looking at its prey. His eye was so cold…. as if killing her simply wasn't worth his time. She felt defeated.

Without hesitation or the slightest sense of mercy, he raised his blade, prepared to give her a warrior's death.

The blade **wooshed **downward.

"Brunhilde!" Squall's hand was reaching out in front of her, holding what looked like a detonator.

Ichika's swing halted mid-air, as if it instantly froze in time. He stared down upon the broken form of his opponent, completely frozen, snapped out of his bloodlust.

Squall stared back into the blood red eye of Ichika as a lump appeared in her throat. His eyes were burning into her very soul as he growled like a lion stalking its prey.

It was VERY clear she needed to talk fast if she wanted to live.

"The Brunhilde. The one they call the strongest. Your sister. If I die so will she."

Ichika leveled the large IS sword and pushed it against her throat, hard enough to allow for a trickle of blood to begin going down her neck.

"You lie." She shook her head slightly, so as to not cut herself more on the sword pressed against her throat. The great majority of her was terrified for her life, but there was a small part of her that was giddy with the information she was about to tell.

"Our boss said you were not of use since you wouldn't give up any information, so we were ordered to use you as bait! We ambushed and captured her, she is in prison. I have ordered the entire facility to be primed with explosives, and this-" she showed him the button in her hand "-is the kill switch. It's a dead man's switch. If my finger comes off this button, the prison goes up in smoke, and your precious sister gets turned into a Brunhilde Pancake." A sly smile appeared on Squall's face.

Contrary to what she thought would happen, Ichika hardly reacted, merely squinting his eye slightly in doubt.

"And if I call this… less than subtle… bluff?" Ichika questioned.

"Don't play games, kid. That isn't the question here. The r-" "NO. You don't patronize me. You say you have captured Chifuyu? Prove it." He cut her off, growing annoyed and impatient.

"Ok" Squall's hand began to move inside her jacket, only for the sword against her neck to push harder. She gave a grunt of pain and looked back at the demon in front of her.

"Slowly. Try anything and I will not hesitate to run you through." She nodded, once again feeling very threatened, yet also slightly giddy. The amount of adrenaline pumping through her veins was making her entire body shake. Of course she could still feel the overwhelming pain of having lost an arm, but it was oddly going away. What was remaining of the arm had grown cold and numb.

Squall reached into her inside jacket pocket, moving so slowly it was as if she was fretting over disturbing a pet. It was difficult. She only had one hand, which was holding the dead man's switch. So she had to keep her pinky and ring finger holding it with her thumb pressing down the button, all while grabbing for an item.

Slowly pulling out who looked to Ichika to be a piece of paper, she offered it to him.

He shook his head. "Show me, or read what is on it." Ichika said, assuring Squall had no chances to try to pull something.

She turned it in her hand, flipping over the paper, revealing a photo of Chifuyu, confirming her statement.

The first thought Ichika had was, was the photo doctored? But he severely doubted she would be so paranoid as to fake a photo of a captured family member of one of her random prisoners. He knew his enemies were smart, but that much thinking ahead was just entirely a waste of time, not to mention the event of his escape on this exact day would be nigh impossible to predict.

The photo was of Chifuyu, obviously, but she looked far worse than Ichika had ever seen her. She was tied down to what looked like a metal cross, except the horizontal parts of the cross were at a downward 45 degree angle, so not horizontal at all.

She was tied down with chains and completely passed out. She hardly looked any older than when he had last seen her, but she looked in horrible shape. Her hair was longer than he had ever seen it and looked slathered in grease. Her face had massive bags under the eyes and she had lines running across her forehead, neither of which he had ever seen on her. Her clothes were cut in several places and the sight of crimson confirmed that she was bleeding, or at least had been.

"TELL ME WHERE SHE IS LOCATED!" Ichika roared.

"The bottom floor. It's almost brand new. Her cell is straight across from the elevator you came up to the surface in. It's the only cell on the floor."

Ichika grabbed the katana from her severed arm. And with that Ichika turned on a dime and dash backwards into the prison that had been his hell for so many years.

Squall looked as he ran, watching through the broken walls as Ichika entered the elevator, waiting for the doors to close. She smiled even though she was exhausted, and released the pressure her thumb had on the killswitch.

She didn't even have time to start counting as explosions instantly ensued.

**BAROOOOM! **She watched as what was remaining of the above ground floor of the building exploded. Cement shrapnelled in all directions, but none got close enough to harm her. She felt a wave of heat wash over her skin.

_Idiot..._

Having killed or at least distracted her enemy, Squall let out a sigh filled with pain and relief. The adrenaline that was keeping her going disappeared as fast as it had come as she found her breathing slowing, and eyes growing heavy and fighting to stay open.

She could barely make out the forms of IS landing around her, as she gave into unconsciousness, falling onto the hard ground in front of her.

* * *

[Location - Phantom Task "Heavy Prison" Bottom Floor - 12:28 a.m.]

An elevator was in the center of the wall at the end of a hallway. Opposite the elevator, a hundred meters away was a large metal door, apparently leading to the only room on the floor. A silence filled the hall as the last guard in the hallway went through the door, slamming it behind him.

The guard looked as if he'd seen a ghost. His face had paled so much it looked like there was no pigment at all. His forehead was dotted in sweat and he was panting. Clearly he had just finished running from something, and was terrified of whatever it was.

The door led straight into a cell so large it appeared as more of a huge empty cavern. It was in the shape of a large rectangle, easily 50 feet wide and more than a couple hundred feet across. Stories tall with columns around the sides to hold up the floors above. It was lit as much as possible, but the lights were so high in the ceiling, the room still looked dim.

Behind each column were a few guards each, all peering around aiming firearms at the door, knowing what was coming.

On the far side of the room across from the metal door, there were what appeared to be a practical army of terrorist guards in rows, all nervously waiting for the doors to open once more. The front row held various melee weapons. The second row held firearms, all focused on the door. Behind both was a metal cross, chained to which was the crowned jewel of Phantom Tasks prisoners. A prisoner that they had captured mere days ago.

On the sides of the cross were two large Mechas that towered over the other terrorists. Both were clearly made to be melee, with massive swords in each of their hands.

The terrorists were the most loyal ones in the facility, they had heard the alarm for evacuation, but their orders were to guard the prize at all costs. They knew it took dozens of I.S.'s to bring down Chifuyu Orimura. Of course she was in her own I.S. at the time, but it still showed the savagery and skill that an Orimura fought with, and they knew her brother would be much more furious since he would be fighting for himself AND his sister. He would fight mercilessly.

Command had informed them of what was happening; Ichika Orimura had escaped and was heading their way to get his sister. They had all prepared themselves to kill the boy once he opened the door. The dozens of guards from the hallway had retreated into the cell room, knowing that they would have the best chance of defense if they stood along their comrades. All terrorists appeared nervous except the pilots of the two IS. Fingers were on triggers, waiting for the slightest movement of the door to open fire. The swordsmen continued to shift positions nervously, knowing they would be the first to fight the Orimura. The pilots' ISes stood still, calm and highly confident, believing they would easily survive the soon to come fight.

A very soft **ding** was heard from the far away elevator, signaling the arrival of their target. The entire room tensed as the sound of walking continued to pierce the silence, with each step more and more terrorists held their breath. They heard the clicking of the metal locks becoming undone…

The door flung open with a figure appearing and bullets rained towards the doorway as the melee terrorists charged the door, preparing to tear the remnants of the man to shreds. The figure was being torn to pieces by bullets, and in seconds, fell to the floor in a pile of blood and organs…

…"What?" Said quite a few terrorists. They had been prepared for a fight to the death… did they kill the Orimura in mere seconds?

One of the melee terrorists spoke up, now poking the pile of sludge that used to be their target with his sword.

"Well that was certainly easier than I thou"- A second figure leaped through the door, cutting through the unsuspecting guards head with a perfect swipe of a katana. Before anyone could react the figure had turned and began cutting down the melee guards like cattle. Five of the guards were dead before the first guards head even hit the floor.

As Ichika continued to easily slaughter the melee guards, the other terrorists didn't know what to do… if they fired now they would kill their own men. But their hesitancy was easily dissuaded once the commanding IS pilot commanded to "Open Fire".

The figure, they now knew to somehow be Ichika, blocked another sword slash with a lazy block then dashed to the side of the room, hiding from the oncoming fire behind one of the massive columns. The remaining melee guards sprinted after him.

The guards to the opposite side of the same column began circling it in an attempt to catch Ichika off guard, but it appeared he already knew they were there as he had gone further to the side into the shadows. They circled around the column to where Ichika was a second ago, finding it empty, they turned around expecting that he had gone around the column to get to them. Ichika ran from behind them, slicing cleanly through their chests in one stroke. They collapsed onto the column, dead before they hit the ground, their blood soaking the stone and floor.

Ichika whirled around blocking a strike to the side of his head. He bent down and twisted his blade, disarming one opponent while blocking another strike by a second opponent, then stabbed her through the chest. With a sick **slunk** he pulled the sword back out of her body, pushing her forward onto the blade of her peers' oncoming strike as she screamed in pain all the while. Her peer paused, horrified at what had just happened. Ichika jumped straight at the man, stabbing through the impaled woman's face to kill him.

The other terrorists far away hadn't stopped firing, killing many of their own.

The remaining swordsmen, now numbering around 18, swarmed both sides of the column. Ichika began blocking strikes left and right which, though were easy alone, were somewhat tiring all at once. He sprinted through their group, grunts and cries of pain following in his trail. It took him about a second to deal with each person as they fell around him like flies. Ichika had fought back to his original position by the column.

He approached the last standing swordsman. The man threw a strike to Ichika's side as the katana in Ichika's right hand sliced through the air to intercept it, but instead the blade cut straight through the terrorists blade. The man looked at Ichika, stunned, but this was no time to stop fighting. Ichika kicked the man straight in his stomach, sending him flying through the open room as well as the oncoming fire.

Ichika turned around, staying on the side of the column in the shadows. He began to quickly dash from column to column, only pausing to kill the guards behind each pillar.

The remaining terrorists began backing closer to the two I.S. as Ichika slowly gained ground. The I.S. themselves not counter attacking as the rest of the terrorists would get in their way and become further collateral damage.

In minutes Ichika finally got to the final column, which was still a solid 20 feet from the remaining guards. Covered in a thick layer of fresh blood, he leaned back on the column, taking a short break to figure out a plan to take out the gunmen. The terrorists made sure to never slow their gunfire, keeping Ichika from getting a chance to attack them. However, after a few minutes of continual fire on the column the terrorists were ordered to stop firing in fear they would run out of ammo. The I.S. pilots took the chance and flew above the gunmen to the column, and began circling it from both sides.

Ichika ran left out of the column with his blades sheathed, sliding under its legs and sitting up directly into a running stance, and charged the gunmen. He leapt at 45 degree angles, moving from side to side while still charging toward them. The guns roared back to life as Ichika closed the distance, covering the distance in only a few bounds. If he was shot, he didn't react.

Ichika tensed his legs from the landing of the third lunge, then jumped over the guards heads, landing dead center of the pack. The gunmen ceased fire so as not to kill each other.

The I.S. realized what had occurred and turned round to fly back to their peers, but they had given Ichika all the time he needed.

With a sharp **ring **the blades were unsheathed and they knew their fight was over. One guard seemingly wished to only save his own life, ignoring the shouts of warning from the other terrorists, he open fired at the young man. But yet again, too late. Ichika seemingly teleported right to the side of the man, dodging the bullets that followed milliseconds later. The bullets shot the terrorists that were just behind Ichika, killing many from pointblank range. The man who had fired attempted to scream a cry of fear, but was cut off by Ichika's tachi cutting off the entire left side of his body to his waist, falling to the floor in two giant pieces of flesh. The rest of the gunmen began running away from Ichika in different directions, knowing that if they put enough distance between each other and Ichika, they could use their firearms again without worrying about killing their "terrorists-in-arms". Ichika picked his targets, taking down multiple of them with each swing. The last one had turned back in an attempt to fire at him, but he simply threw his tachi like a javelin and it bedded itself in between the gunmen's eyes.

Seconds... that is how long it took him to kill them all. But they were not the challenge… Nothing he had done up to this moment was the challenge. No… the two challenges landed behind him as he ran at the fallen guard who still had Ichikas' tachi in his head.

The swords on both I.S. were massive, which made sense considering the machines were massive in and of themselves. They swung from behind Ichika, flying behind him as he ran to the body. Luckily he had enough of a headstart to evade them, but they would catch up in no more than a second.

But Ichika had a plan. He was guessing Squall had already blown the dead man's switch. Chances were the guards on the bottom floor didn't fill this room with those explosives, since they were guarding Chifuyu here. That was why the room hadn't gone up in smoke yet. But the rest of the facility probably had. Meaning the only thing stopping this room from completely collapsing was the colossal concrete columns.

He ran towards the body and did a front flip over it, tucking in his knees and extending his hand when he was in mid-air to grab a hold of the tachi. Without stopping he ran to the nearest pillar, knowing it would be hard to maneuver to fight around them in an I.S. Both pilots began to engage Ichika. However one was apparently tired of his games, and she struck right at Ichika, taking the column with it. He barely had enough time to run out of the way as 5 feet of the column exploded, sending boulder sized chunks of concrete each and every way.

"DON'T!" One pilot screamed to the one breaking the columns. But she was ignored as her partner continued playing right into Ichika's hand, crushing the gigantic pillars he attempted to hide behind for cover.

Ichika stopped another powerful strike, catching the I.S's sword by using an X-formation with his blades, the ground beneath his feet cracking as he braced against the machine. He grimaced as he could feel more muscles tearing, more bones cracking or breaking. Infinite Stratos was the most advanced piece of military weaponry in existence, it would be suicide to fight even one without your own IS, but fighting two at the same time was practically shaking the Grim Reaper's hand. Ichika could do little more than continually back up, giving her more and more ground so they were now nearing the door Ichika had entered through

"STOP!" The same pilot spoke up once more, as large chunks of concrete and Earth began to fall from the ceiling, but it was no use as her partner broke the final column on the left side. The pilot who had called out a warning began flying over to the elevator, knowing what was about to happen and trying to escape it.

Ichika spun away from another strike before he ran faster than he ever had in his life, towards Chifuyu. Sweat and blood dripped from his entire body with each step. He could feel pieces of bone scraping against each other… but he wouldn't stop now.

The other I.S. pilot realized what she had done and flew after her partner towards the doors. But the ceiling gave; tons of concrete, rebar, and earth fell, slamming into the floor.

Ichika didn't look back as he raced for his goal. He was stopped as a part of the once ceiling crashed right next to him, throwing him off his feet.

Without hesitating he got up into a sprint towards Chifuyu.

50 feet…

40…

30... The ceiling above Chifuyu was cracking.

20…

10… "NOOOO!" Ichika screamed as the ceiling above her dropped. He lunged at her, slashing through the chains on her arms in one broad stroke. He was in the air on top of her, both of them falling to the ground… and then… he blacked out.

* * *

[Location - ? - ?]

[P.O.V. - Ichika]

I had jumped at Chifuyu, cutting her chains, and placing my body above her to, by chance, give a little protection. And then… nothing… black. But there was something… the pain was gone… the exhaustion… gone.

_Shit I didn't die, did I? __**NOT**_ _part of the plan._

My senses began to come back to me so slowly it was hard to determine **what** I was sensing.

_I smell… salt? Is that water… and…. the crashing of waves? I'm on a beach, apparently face down in the sand of a beach._

"Shit. I really did die didn't I?" I said aloud opening my eye and standing up.

"Hahahaha, you're funny."

_I know that laugh, It's what I live for._

He turned around and looked at who had laughed. But what he saw utterly confused him. It was Chifuyu, clearly, but… it wasn't. Too young… it looked like more of a memory of her at a younger age.

"Precisely. Always the smart one, eh?"

_Wait did she ju-_

"Mmmhmm."

He was surprised by this entire situation, and it was very hard to surprise him. _This is going to be the thing that is the weirder if I ever say "I've seen weirder.''_

"Hey! That was just rude." The Mini-Chifuyu scowled at him.

"So you can read my mind?" It was meant as a rhetorical question, but she answered it anyway.

"Yup" She said, making the "p" pop.

"Don't." He stated coldly. She frowned in response

"Why not?" She asked.

"My mind is not a nice place to be."

"Mmmhmm. Fine." She said pouting.

_Pouting?…ok this definitely isn't Chifuyu. _"Well?" he said.

"Well what?"

"How? What? When? Where? Why?" Ichika said in succession.

"Well.. you're not dead… actually right now you're atop the real Chifuyu-" "She's alive?!" He interrupted.

"Yes, and so are you, dummy. If you want to stay that way you're gonna have to do exactly what I say, exactly how I say it. Now, time is of the essence so I'll give you the short version. I am the A.I. of an Infinite Stratos. Once you exit this facility, or what's left of it, the closest hospital is dozens of miles away. I can keep you alive till you get there and start receiving medical treatment, but you obviously need to get to me first. When you wake up, you'll have to get out of the debris on top of you, assuming you still want your sister-"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"No time! Now, you'll have to carry her too since she is still sedated. Go out of the cell and back to the elevator, go to the sides of the elevator and climb down the rest of the shaft, you won't have to go far before you hit the bottom. After you get there, there will be a pair of incredibly large doors to a secret floor. Once you open them, then you'll be in a large unlit room. Just walk forward and you'll run into me. After we make physical contact you can pilot me, and I'll take it from there.

"Men can't pilot IS." Ichika stated.

"Look. You're just gonna have to trust me. Every second you stay with me your chances of survival dwindles. Just trust me, ok?"

"..."

"Too late to discuss this, we're out of time. Just trust me… please?" Mini-Chifuyu pleaded with him as his senses began to dullen.

* * *

[P.O.V. - Narrator]

Ichika shot awake. He gave a cry of pain as once again he felt all of his wounds and the beating his body had taken. Every cut and scrape, the feeling of stabbing pain from his own shattered bones tearing apart his flesh from the inside. The left side of his stomach was on fire, he looked down and saw that a thin piece of rebar had given him a thin but deep cut on the torso. He couldn't feel his left hand at all, he ran his gaze from his left arm to where his hand was. It was being crushed in between three chunks of cement. His entire body was covered in blood, he didn't want to know how much of it was others and how much was actually his.

Chifuyu's body was under him. His frame was making a diagonal line above hers, covering her left leg, body, right arm, and head, leaving only her right leg and left arm exposed to the smaller pieces of debris that were still falling from the above encasement.

He couldn't worry about her right now, if he died, they both did. He shifted his weight and put his right hand on the large piece of debris above him. Mustering up what little strength he had been pushed against the debris, attempting to move it off of him so he could stand. After 10 seconds of funneling his strength, he stopped. It hadn't even budged.

A sound of crushing could be heard. The debris was beginning to cave in on itself. He HAD to move fast.

Ichika was in too awkward of a position to move it. His left hand was restricting him too much, he couldn't move from the spot he was in at all. Seeming to pause and think for a second he came to a conclusion and started to turn his head around, looking through the debris. After a few seconds he saw what he was looking for and extended his hand to grab for it, grunting as he slowly and painfully stretched his body. It seemed as though he reached the item, as he pulled back into his original position with a blood covered piece of metal in his hands. The katana he fought with had been crushed into pieces by the debris, Ichika now held a jagged piece of the former blade about 10 inches long.

_Nothing will get in my way, not even myself._

Ichika held the piece of metal and placed it over his left arm, the closest place to the debris pinning his hand as he could. His breath quickened as he was filled with adrenaline, his body anticipating in fear of what he was about to make it do. The metal in his hand began to make him bleed he was holding it so tightly.

3… He slowed his breath.

2… He raised the piece of metal, jagged side down.

1… _For Chifuyu. _Ichika yelled in determination and plunged the tachi piece down into his arm. He made a cry of pain as it ripped through his own flesh, cutting through his veins and muscles. But not enough.

Ichika raised the piece now covered in his own blood.

_For Tabane. _His right hand flew back down at his left arm. The bone made a loud cracking noise that would haunt Ichika's nightmares more than any of the tortures he had gone through in those long years.

He tried to think, but couldn't, the pain overwhelmed anything else. No hearing, no sight, no feeling, nothing. It was just pain. Life was pain. He hadn't cried in years but tears were now flowing freely from his organic eye.

His body begged him to stop.

Through sheer will alone, he raised the piece for a third time. His right hand hit the ceiling of the debris, stopping him from raising it higher.

_For Madoka. _An animalistic yell of determination escaped his blood filled mouth, Ichika slashed down through the air.

Ichika fell to the ground, the motion of the final strike following through and slamming him into the floor. He gagged and began throwing up from the pain. His blood and sweat mixing with his vomit and dust from the debris.

_Breath…In… Out… In… Out… _

Stabilising himself, he ever so slowly pulled himself up. He took off the bloody and cut up Guard Uniform top and used it and the piece of katana to make a terrible excuse for a tourniquet.

He trudged over and repositioned himself where he had once tried to lift the debris. He put his blood covered right hand over himself, bracing his back against the large chunk of concrete.

Ichika sucked in breath, trying to gain the largest amount of energy he could. After preparing himself he started.

More adrenaline rushed into his system as he poured everything into the effort. The pain of having severed his hand dulled. The debris gave a groan of defiance.

He closed his eye in concentration, nostrils flaring. His teeth cracked from the force that he was clenching his jaw with. Dust and small bits of rock dropped from above him as the debris shifted.

His muscles felt like liquid, but he was getting close as he was now half-standing with his knees slightly bent.

Sweat turned to blood as Ichika made a final shove, having spent everything he had left.

The debris crashed behind the young man as he fell to the floor as his body finally got the relief it had begged for.

Part of him was begging for death, the other part demanding to continue through. His logical mind would not be denied, and Ichika crawled over to Chifuyu's unconscious form. He forced his body to pull itself into a squat next to her. Carefully, he slipped his right arm under her back and half carried half pulled her out of a gap in the encasing debris they had been stuck in.

Ichika was now standing on top of a sea of large chunks of what used to be the room's roof. Ichika picked up Chifuyu and carried her like a sack of potatoes as he made his way through the wreckage to the door. He knew he had to move fast, his sister would now be fine, but he was still in a more than critical state.

The door was luckily not buried, though next to it he did see remains of what used to be I.S.'s crushed under far more debris than he was stuck under, blood pooling under the rocks surrounding them. The pilots may have still been alive, but frankly, he didn't give a damn.

He trudged through the still open door and made his way to the elevator, heavily dripping in a mixture of fluids all the while leaving a trail of bloody footprints. Ichika placed Chifuyu down and pushed the "UP" button, then slumped down, leaning against the wall. He sat her head in his lap and stroked her silky black hair, tucking a long strand behind her ear. He looked over her for wounds and found a few cuts on her arm and leg, but nothing major.

Ichika knew he didn't have the energy to carry her on top of the elevator and down the rest of the shaft, he would just have to trust Mini-Chifuyu. As the elevator door opened Ichika kissed Chifuyu's head, and gently placed her on the ground. His body screamed at him as he stood up and entered the elevator. He could've sworn he was hearing thousands of slurs being shouted at his mind from the rest of his body.

Ignoring the flashing buttons that were waiting for him to choose a floor he pulled himself up onto the railing, opened the hatch, and used his one hand to pull himself up. He looked around at the familiar look of the elevator shaft, then went to the edge and grabbed one of the large pulley wires that held the elevator.

Ichika leaned into the wire and practically fell to the bottom, his hand only barely slowing his dissent, landing harshly.

Before him stood an out of place set of large doors, filling the entire wall. Ichika placed his hand on the right door and shoved it open, stumbling into a dark room only lit by the light shining through the doorway.

He limped forward into the chilling stale air, his hand outstretched in front since he could hardly see. Step… Step… Step. His hand landed on the feeling of dust covered cloth, he grabbed the cloth with his hand and pulled it towards him. The cloth gave and Ichika could feel it falling to the floor. After pausing, he took another step forward and his hand landed on a cold metal.

There was a quick flash of light that illuminated the entire room as information rushed into his head. He was shown the very basics of piloting an I.S, which he already knew, but now the information felt more set in stone - more instinctual. The light faded away and found himself in the pilot seat of the IS.

"_I'll take it from here...but I'll need your help once we get to the hospital… just stay conscious until then alright,"_ said a soft voice in his head.

The Mini-Chifuyu A.I. took control of the Infinite Stratos. The machine flew straight through the doors of the room, completely bending them out of shape. It cut the elevator in half, getting it out of the way, and hovered by the wall the elevator was facing. Its arm extended, gently picking up Chifuyu's body, and held her close to it's chest. Then shot up through the elevator shaft.

Ichika was only focusing on staying conscious like the A.I. said, not even processing any of the I.S.'s movement.

The I.S. reached the top of the shaft and flew straight forward, bursting through the walls of the top floor. Without changing its path it went through wall after wall, not even slightly slowing. As the Infinite Stratos broke the final wall, moonlight coated the machine in a dim light. The I.S. flew into the sky, turned towards the distant hospital, and shot towards it.

Moving faster and faster, it continued to cut through the sky at speeds most pilots could only dream of.

"_Brace yourself"_ The A.I. stated to Ichika, but he didn't even register the statement. Glass of surrounding buildings shattered as the machine broke the sound barrier; a deafening **boom,** that sounded like a cannon firing, followed. The I.S. only continued to speed up, as if flying at the speed of sound was childsplay.

After little more than 2 minutes the machine slowed itself, and gently landed in a dark alleyway.

"_This is the most I can do. You're so close, all you have to do is go left out of this alley and the hospital will be right beside you… I'll be with you the whole time."_ The A.I. stated as the I.S. was covered in light, and disappeared, reappearing as a brand new eyepatch that once again covered Ichika's empty eye socket.

Ichika landed on his feet, bending his knees as he caught Chifuyu with a grunt. The effort would generally be less than nothing, but his body was on fire, the effort made him almost pass out. Focusing on just staying on his feet, Ichika walked forward. _Left… Right… Left… Right._

He turned the corner and saw the hospital entrance a few yards from him. _Left… Right… Left… _He turned and put his shoulder to the door, pushing with all his might as it slowly opened into a hallway of bustling people.

The whole room instantly became silent as everyone in the room looked at the person who had just entered. A figure missing their left hand dripping blood, carrying a young woman in his right arm and what remained of his left arm. The only feature distinguishable of the figure was the oddly fresh looking eyepatch over the right eye. A woman covered in blood, though whether it was hers or the figure's, they couldn't tell.

The effect was immediate. Waiting patients were pushed aside as the figure and woman were grabbed by several doctors and nurses as some began yelling orders at each other. They brought in two stretchers and laid them down onto them. Ichika passed out before they even put him onto the stretcher, finally allowing sleep to finally overtake him, begging that he and Chifuyu would be in good hands.

* * *

**A/N:** There it is. This is the first chapter I wrote for this fanfiction. By far my favorite chapter I have written. I felt good about chapter 1, and okay about 2 & 3, but I feel genuine pride in this chapter.

The chapter has so much action. I cannot express how much I love action. I mean, a good story is great, but man if I don't love a good fight. However, you can't have a good fight without the emotional attachments to the characters, which comes from the rest of the story.

My original idea for this fanfiction was "What if Chifuyu was captured instead of Ichika? How could he have the ability to rescue her? How could she be defeated? Etc."

I wanted to show a failed escape attempt of Ichikas in which the OC would die, I just didn't like the chapter I ended up with. So I scrapped it.

There is a Batman quote in this chapter, you get bonus points if you found it.

Ichika lifting the ruble was meant to be an homage to Spiderman, I hope I made that obvious enough.

IS: Gamer Chapter 2 is coming soon too. Those chapters write themselves, and I don't re-read it a bajillion times, so they're a ton easier to make.

Okay. It's 4:30 in the morning. I'm going to bed, bye.

* * *

**Personal Response:**

**ShadowofDemons:** Thank you very much. It is so nice to know that someone enjoys my story so much.

* * *

\- This is AceOfSpades, signing off.


	5. Chapter 5

[P.O.V. - Ichika - March 3rd, 1:57 p.m.]

**Crash.**

"..."

**Crash.**

"Mmmmm."

**Crash.**

"Mmmmmmm." Another soft groan escaped Ichika's lips. His consciousness surfaced.

He could feel the gentleness of the surface his face was pressing into.

_...sand? _He questioned himself. _I'm….. on... a beach?_

With a grunt he rolled his body over and rubbed his eye as he blinked away the drowsiness. Finally, he fully woke to the sounds of breaking waves. Though his eye could see only darkness, as he presumed it must have been night on the beach.

He felt wonderful once more. All of the pain that coursed through his body was gone. Making the simplest of movements no longer put him through hell.

"Where am I?" Ichika wondered aloud, sitting up and propping himself up on the soft sand.

His confusion was quickly answered when the memories of the previous day rushed back into his barely conscious mind.

_Time to get some answers. _He thought as he stood up, looking around but not seeing the AI. Over the sound of the crashing waves he heard a gentle singing that he assumed belonged to her, and began making his way towards it.

If he was being honest, he felt great. His pain and exhaustion were gone. Listening to the soft singing while walking he could feel the sand squish in between his bare toes, the breaking waves providing a fresh breeze that tingled against his skin. To most it might just be a relaxing walk, but to Ichika it was heaven. No longer was he covered in blood and grime, no longer did his muscles ache and scream for relief, no longer was he being beaten to a bloody pulp. He took a deep breath, enjoying existing without pain for the second time in years.

A touch of light danced on his face, catching his attention. Coming to a slow stop Ichika turned and looked straight at the sky.

The sun was rising.

It broke the horizon, scaring away the darkness of the night and replacing it with a gentle light, bathing the skyline in a rainbow of colors. The ocean was the purest blue he had ever seen. Further and further the flower of light rose into the sky as Ichika watched. The sky continued to brighten, dashing away the deep purples and blues and replacing them with vibrant oranges and reds. Beautiful, in every sense of the word.

Then Ichika did something that surprised even himself, he smiled. A wide and genuine smile of pure joy, with eyes crinkled and teeth on display. Existence was no longer just pain.

Ichika fell to his knees and began to laugh aloud, tears of happiness seeped from his organic eye. He had succeeded as well. It took far longer than he thought, and cost him much more than he had originally predicted, but he had successfully dealt a large blow to Phantom Task. It didn't happen the way he thought it would, but it still happened.

**"YYYYYEEEEEESSSSS!"** Ichika shouted at the top of his lungs until he had to stop for a breath. He was sure the echoing of his cheer of triumph could be heard for miles around.

Ichika had also found out he had the ability to pilot an IS, a completely different goal of his that he had no expectations of accomplishing any time soon.

**He** could tear down Phantom Task and save millions. **He** could become the best IS pilot there ever was. **He** could keep safe innocence and help those who couldn't help themselves. **He** could be the light in the world that balances the ever growing darkness. **He** could make his family proud. He **could**… and he **would**.

He knew which IS would have an AI that looked like Chifuyu. He also knew the only IS that even had a full AI. He didn't know how…. But it would surely prove to be an asset in and of itself. Though he was quite confused as to how Phantom Task got a hold of the particular IS.

It took him a few minutes to reach the source of the singing. By then he had pulled himself together, but he still had a gentle smile on his face.

He was no longer desperate to get moving, and thus was pulling in many more details than his first time on the beach.

The AI was laying down a few feet from the crashing waves, sitting on a hill of the very fine sand, swinging her crossed legs while she hummed her melody. A smile of contentness on her face as she gazed upon the sky. She wore a sundress of pure white silk, with patterns sewn into the garment. _Ok, she is NOTHING like Chifuyu… _

She looked up as Ichika approached and smiled widely at him while Ichika attempted a stone cold expression, only for his gentle smile to break through.

"Hello again, my friend." The AI greeted, he nodded his head in acknowledgment. Her voice matched that of her form, meaning it sounded like a younger Chifuyu. But while Chifuyu often made her voice deeper and sharper to establish authority, the AI's voice flowed as nicely as the dress she wore. As smooth and sweet as the finest honey, yet radiant with power.

She stood from her position in the sand and dusted of her dress, proving to be taller than he expected. "Allow me to officially introduce myself, my name is Shirokishi or White Knight." She gave a deep bow in greeting.

_Called it._

Ichika was not one to bow. Yes, it was tradition, especially in Japan. However, he held himself tall and proud even as a child. He recognized that it was a simple gesture of kindness and manor, yet he could not bring himself to like it. Though this time, this one time, he made an exception and bowed to the AI, although not nearly as deep as she had bowed.

"...not that I wasn't expecting that." He began as he brought himself back up to his full height, with perfect posture of course. "But I, as well as the entire world, was under the impression that The White Knight was completely destroyed in its daring rescue of Tokyo. Tabane said that all she could find was merely scraps of the frame." Ichika responded as he paced around her in a circle, observing her.

*sigh* "You might want to get comfortable, this is going to take a long time to explain." Ichika continued to walk around, analyzing her, but he motioned for her to continue.

"Alright… where should I start?" *sigh* "Ok. The White Knight is the only IS to have an Artificial Intelligence, it's part of what makes it so unique. This AI helps the pilot to fly the Infinite Stratos in many ways, and if given permission by the pilot, can take full control of the machine. Other IS have a kind of AI, but it isn't really the full thing, since it can't learn for itself."

"Now." She continued. "When Phantom Task hacked into the weapons of the world's governments, the AI was still incomplete. It didn't yet know much of the information that was necessary to complete it's tasks, nor did it have an actual avatar or physical form. So, to speed up the process so the White Knight could be completed, the AI copied all of the information it needed from it's pilot onto itself. That's why I look like an exact copy of Chifuyu Orimura when she flew me for the first and only time."

Ichika had simply continued to nod, having already guessed the majority of what she said, only now having his suspicions confirmed.

"Next topic. You know what happened to me during what they call 'the White Knight incident'? Chifuyu was an excellent partner, though I hate to admit it." She said with a slightly distasteful face.

_She seemes to have some sort of grudge against Chifuyu, noted._

"We fought together magnificently, even though it was the first time either of us had flown. She had amazing talent, and I had all the information and knowledge I needed, but we had no experience. We had destroyed thousands and thousands of the weapons, but we couldn't get them all, and some began hitting the White Knight. One particularly large blast hit the heavily damaged IS, and that was all it could take."

_That was the large explosion that day. That is why Chifuyu was looking at me... she thought she was about to die._

"You see, the White Knight had none of the modifications you would later make-" "Tabane didn't introduce me into the IS design for another few weeks…. Even though I could tell it was clearly her work…" Ichika interrupted, the AI nodded.

_Never did like interrupting, but now is simply no time for mannerisms. The bow was enough._

"Exactly, so it was and still is only Tabane's original design. It didn't have an Absolute Barrier, an Inertia Canceller, and so on and so forth. So all that protected the pilot was the armor, and Chifuyu had taken a very heavy beating. Chifuyu had blacked out after the last large missle hit the IS full force. After which Phantom Task stole their real target, The White Knight, in its 'resting form'."

_Ironic. If Tabane hadn't implemented the use of 'IS Space' they never could have stolen it so swiftly. She literally made it too advanced. Figures._

She paused to allow the information to sink in, and continued. "Tabane Shinonono had claimed she invented a machine the likes of which the world had never seen, not many believed her, but Phantom Task saw an opportunity. They hacked the governments and sent their weapons to Tabane's home country, knowing that she would send out her machine to defend her homeland. They used it as a test to see if the machine could do what she said and as an opportunity to take the Infinite Stratos for themselves… their plan was executed flawlessly."

"After they stole the White Knight. They attempted to use it as an incredible trump card that nothing could stand against, but there was one thing they didn't count on. Me. I stopped any of them from piloting myself. They thought it must have been a malfunction since it was the first of its kind or that the White Knight had been too damaged and was broken… junk. Of course they didn't want anyone else to ever find it in case, by chance, they **could** pilot it. So they stored it where no one would go or ever think to look, deep underground, far below their prison."

"For years the White Knight collected dust. I tried to entertain myself but I'll be honest, it was **really** boring. I hacked the prison's technology, but honestly there wasn't much to do, all they had was security doors, cameras, and little else. But I took an interest in a young boy, you. I watched you day and night, granted the night was less interesting considering it was always just pitch black. I watched you train and train, using the little space you could move in to master anything and everything you knew. Every time you tried to escape I would try to help by cutting off the guards access to the cameras, but I couldn't do much else unless I chose you as my pilot, in which case I could communicate with you the same way we are now. I watched your escape, saw your skill, your raw talent and indomitable willpower… I felt a connection… a pull towards you. So… I chose you."

She paused and her smile faded as her face morphed into a serious expression. The waves grew silent and the breeze stopped altogether. In a flash of light she was gone, replaced with the hulking frame of The White Knight, though empty and without a pilot. It floated silently, hovering in the air mere feet in front of him.

Her voice began to speak from the armor, this time it echoed across the beach, with an air of authority daring anyone to object.

"Know well, **you** Ichika Orimura are the pilot of The White Knight… **you** Ichika Orimura are **my** pilot. **You** are the one and only person on this planet that I will allow to pilot me. I deem **you** worthy, **no one** else."

As soon as she had transformed, she did so again. Turning back into the smiling young girl in a silly little sundress.

"Well... that was awesome." She giggled, but evidently her story was unfinished as she continued to speak.

"I formed a bond between us, the very fact that it was successful means that you subconsciously allowed our bond to form, embraced it. It also means that you, and I actually don't know if it has to do with me choosing you or what, are the **only** male in the entire world with the capabilities to pilot an Infinite Stratos." She inhaled deeply, finally finishing her explanation. "Oh… and you're about to wake up in a few seconds… have fun with that. But also… thanks, I would still be in the bottom of that prison collecting dust if it wasn't for you." She said, smiling once more.

_That's true from a certain point of view, but you also saved my life. _"You have my thanks as well." He said as he felt himself starting to wake up.

"Oh. Also, when the White Knight bonded with you, it began healing most of your major wounds, speeding up your healing factor. However, loads of minor ones still cover your body, and the healing didn't replace all that effort and energy you exerted so you're going to be extremely tired.

"...I have a question." She tilted her head.

"Tabane told me that the White Knight was almost completely destroyed." He said it like a statement, but it was really more of a question.

"She lied, as you already know, you just don't want to admit it." Ichika felt his stomach drop slightly. He could see that Tabane had lied, it was the only possible reasoning. Yet, he had been hoping it wasn't true. He felt a small mixture of anger and disappointment in his friend and tutor, yet it vanished as fast as it had surfaced.

"Tabane had recently taken on an apprentice. The second she introduced him to her invention he began making improvements and modifications. She loves you and enjoys having you as an apprentice, but her pride was wounded."

Ichika glanced down, he had never seen it that way. … _I guess I would feel pretty annoyed if I just made the invention of the millenia and then some kid just came along and started to make… improvements. Ya… that would be annoying, even though I want best for the advancement of technology._

"Then you asked her what happened to the White Knight, and she couldn't bring herself to admit that it had not been destroyed….but far worse… lost, stolen. She had played right into Phantom Tasks hands and she knew it. Above anyone else, they were the most likely ones to have stolen it. So, she began mass producing IS, in hopes that their numbers could overwhelm the White Knight if Phantom Task ever returned with it."

Ichika looked up at her with somewhat saddened eyes, nodding. He could understand why Tabane would lie. Given the circumstances, he may have done it himself. But… he still felt somewhat disappointed in his mentor.

"Don't be too hard on her, okay? Despite what you think about the people you hold dear to you, they are not perfect. Madoka is not a perfect picture of innocence. Nor is Chifuyu the perfect warrior. Nor is Tabane the perfect vision of intelligence. Nor are you the perfect incarnate of wisdom."

He looked down at the sand again, the light from the sun leaving his face as his long hair blocked it from the sun.

"You're right, of course. It's just… disappointing." He admitted.

"I'll tell you one thing though…. you're the best of all of them, Ichika. The very best."

Ichika lifted his head to look at her once more as his form began to fully disappear from the beach, with a ghost of a smile still on his lips.

…

**Beep….**

**Beep….**

**Beep….**

… Ichika could hear the beeping of a machine as well as distorted talking as his body began to wake up.

He felt better, certainly not as well as in his own mind, but better. It felt like he was laying on a cloud. The pain he felt in his arm was bad, as well as on his side and left leg, but after all he had been through it felt like a bee sting. The distorted talking cleared as his body woke up completely, he groaned and blinked open his eye, his right eye socket covered by an eyepatch.

_"That's me. Like it? Your original eyepatch was cut off during your first day of being tortured, so you needed a new one and I thought it made sense. Plus, what else do you **never **__take off?" _The voice of Shirokishi spoke in his mind. '_Well__ done.' _He mentally spoke back, guessing correctly how to communicate with her.

Honestly he didn't even notice that she turned into an eyepatch when she disappeared into IS space when he first came into the hospital.

The speaking voice sounded very similar, but more mature. "You're awake." The voice said as a person leaned over his face, smiling widely, though Ichika saw a deep sadness behind those eyes. _Madoka. _She looked like a slightly younger version of Shiroi Kishi, which made her a slightly younger-younger version of Chifuyu. _This is going to give me a headache._

"Ichika…" The amount of emotion poured into the single word was astounding. Ichika could hear the heartbreak behind it, but also the overwhelming happiness.

Before even trying to start a conversation Madoka burst into tears, wrapping her arms around Ichika. To be honest it freaked him out, when she touched him he could feel the pin of his scars and felt like he was back in the prison, about to be tortured once more. However with effort he forced himself to relax, it was his family after all, she wouldn't hurt him.

"It's alright…. It's alright. I assure you I'm fine. Shhhh...everything is going to be okay." He said in words so gentle they were whispers, all while he rubbed his hand in a circular motion along her back, giving his best attempt to sooth her.

Ichika looked around only to find his neck hurt like hell from the small movements. _Must've been the awkward position I was in when I lifted the rubble._

He was now sitting up in a hospital bed as Madoka sat next to him in a chair. Nearly his entire body was covered in gauze, his head was covered in thick padding like a helmet. Where his left hand used to be was now nothing, his arm only extending to about 2/3rds of his forearm, the rest only a stub wrapped in gauze and cloth.

Across from the hospital bed was a window with open blinds, through which he could see cars wizzing by. What suprised him was that he saw store signs in Japanese.

_I'm in Japan?_

_I can heal, shouldn't take me too long to make a mechanical hand and new eye. The old eye barely worked when I still had it 5 years ago, and was constantly malfunctioning. Plus, I can make many more uses for that eye other than just seeing. _Ichika thought, already planning what he would do once he got out of the hospital.

Madoka's loud sobs had turned into muffled cries and let go of Ichika, sitting back in her chair. The chair gave a **creak** as she fully leaned back onto it.

"You've….. Ah…" Madoka cleared her throat and whipped her eyes of her tears, pulling herself together.

"You've been out for days. When they figured out who you and Chifuyu were, the entire world went insane. The strongest person in the world had gone missing for a couple days only to reappear in her long lost brother's arms, both covered in blood, you in particular looking like a demon and missing a hand." She glanced with heavy eyes at the stump on Ichika's left arm.

"I….ah….I was contacted that you both were in a hospital in America. I flew over right away. The doctors told me you would be relatively fine with rest, but you still had many injuries… and your body was covered in scarring. Chifuyu didn't wake up…., they said she had been forced into a coma from the amount of anesthetics that were in her body, she's still asleep, but the doctors say they are slowly counteracting the effects of the anesthetics and that she should wake up soon. After you were…." Her voice caught again, she gave a hard swallow.

"After you were… stable, I got some people to move you and Chifuyu back home. Right now you're actually only a few kilometers from our house."

"You… got people to move us?" Ichika asked with a raised eyebrow, pushing for clarification.

"Yes….I mean Chifuyu is Chifuyu. So many people owe her they would do anything to help her in her one time of need. But actually I got **my** people to move you." Madoka answered. Ichika could easily detect the pride in her voice, he also identified the classic Orimura smirk on the right side of her face.

"..." Not even speaking, Madoka understood he wanted more information..

"I'm the new Representative Candidate of Japan, as of a few months ago." She said, smirk turning into a full smile towards Ichika as her eyes sparkled and looked at him for acceptance.

"Well done… Well done indeed. That is no easy feat." Ichika patted her head. He could swear she might explode from happiness.

"So…?" She said. "So what?" Ichika asked.

"Soooo… how are you alive? We thought you were long dead! Why aren't you bothered that you're missing an entire hand?! How did you lose your hand?! Why were you covered in blood?! Why were you carrying Chifuyu?! Why is Chifuyu under anesthesia?!" She finished her rant after constantly gesturing to accommodate every question, panting and gasping for breath.

He decided to quickly and simply answer her questions. "I wasn't dead. I can easily build a perfect mechanical hand. I lost my hand in my escape and was covered in blood because I had to fight my way out. I was carrying Chifuyu because she was in the same prison as me, so I escaped with her. She is under anesthesia because **they** wanted to prevent…. problems."

"How? How could you possibly fight your way out of a Phantom Task prison, there must've been tons of guards, not to mention some might even be piloting IS?!" Madoka questioned, Ichika had a lightning fast inner-conversation to decide what to tell her.

_'__What will the consequences of telling her the truth be? A lot of attention. I could do without that, but apparently there will already be quite a lot of attention on me. Wait. "I can pilot other IS right? I don't see why I wouldn't be able to.' _Ichika asked Shirokishi.

_"__Looking through your memories it's pretty obvious all Infinite Stratos are based off of me, after all I was the original working prototype. Considering that, yes, you should be able to pilot other Infinite Stratos. Why do you want to?" _Shirokishi responded, he could swear he heard a hint of jealousy.

_'__Can't go flying around in the most famous IS, now can I? Actually, I doubt I can ever fly you unless in a very secure facility empty of anyone but me. I'll have to build a second IS for myself to use, or maybe just use a Uchigane, the White Knight will be my last and strongest trump card. Who would expect me to have a second IS if I was in a life or death battle?' _Ichika responded, deciding to tell Madoka the truth.

"I may, **or may not**, have piloted an IS to escape." he answered, hastily adding in the or may not part.

If Madoka had been talking to anyone else, she would've just started laughing thinking they were joking. But she saw the state her brother was in, she knew how Ichika was, he had a knack for doing the impossible and it sounded like as he grew up that only got worse. He was an extremely multi-talented, mega-genius prodigy. If any male on planet Earth could be the first male pilot…. it would be him.

"Okay, explain. Please." Madoka said, as she got up from her chair and sat on Ichika's hospital bed.

*sigh* "Well… I ended up piloting an IS, but it was heavily damaged in my escape, and I didn't have time to repair it." Technically that was all true, but he knew Madoka would assume he meant he had fought with it in his escape and hadn't taken it with him.

"That's it?" She pressed. "I mean… where were you the past five years? Are you ok? I've seen the scars on your body. What happened!?" With each question she scooted closer and closer to him.

Ichika waved his hands in surrender. "... I assure you I am fine, or will be in a few months at most. I would prefer not to talk about what happened to me in the past 5 years, they bring up painful memories that are all too fresh. Please allow me that luxury… now, not to be hypocritical, but what has happened to you all over the past years?"

"Well as I said I became Japan's representative candidate a few months ago, it was difficult and took quite a lot of work and studying, I can't just look at something and have it memorized you know. I got privileges as a representative candidate and actually moved out for two months, but I was lonely and I would bet you Chifuyu was too, even though she hid it. Speaking of Chifuyu… she's been different Ichika. Everyone has been different. Y'know how after your life before she took you in as our brother, she became pretty territorial and protective of you?"

"Mhhm." Ichika confirmed

"After you were… taken... it was so much worse. Nee-chan became colder towards everyone, she searched and searched for you for years. She drank… like a **lot**, still does. I… I was the one who convinced her you were… were dead." She said, tearing up again. "I-*sniffle* -I'm so*sniff* sorry." Madoka's eyes were bloodshot as she once again hugged Ichika and buried her head in his chest.

"She's gonna hate me. I'm the one who told her to move on, to stop looking. But you were alive and being tortured, we **could've** found you, we could've helped you, but I **ruined** it, we could've been a family for the past 5 years and I **RUINED **it."

Ichika didn't show much emotion. He didn't try to hide them like Chifuyu did, that's just how he was. Logical, calm and collected. When he did show emotion, it was often overwhelming and intense but short lived. It was kind of ironic, most people thought he just wasn't empathic, but in reality he was **too** empathic.

"Look at me," Ichika said. She did and honestly he thought she looked cute crying. "You will not spout such nonsense! You are not remotely at fault. I will always love you and Chifuyu, as I'm sure she will always love you as well."

Madoka stopped crying and smiled through a face wet with tears. She did notice that he didn't say "she will always love **us**". That made Madoka sad that he was so unsure that people loved him, but even more determined to show her brother he was loved.

"Thanks." She said. "I needed that."

Ichika started to sit up, ignoring the soreness and pain as he did so. "What are you doing! You need rest!" Madoka said.

"I have things to do. People to see. Plans to make. Projects to build." He said as if it was obvious.

"But- You-" She began stammering.

"I thought you said it's been days?" Ichika protested.

"Well **duh**, but your body is still healing, idiot." Madoka said.

"My body shall still heal even if I am active." He said, getting out of the bed and doing a few small stretches.

"I have many plans, firstly I want to see Chifuyu. I'll be very busy for a while, might not see me for a little, but I'll be back as soon as I can." He said while stretching and slowly walking toward the door, feeling a pain sting in his leg with each step. "Why does my leg hurt?" _I know I had extensive injuries but none were on my legs. _He looked down and searched through the sea of scars, finding a fresh scar of what used to be a bullet hole. _Huh. I guess I got shot during the escape… probably Squall… didn't even notice._

"How can you think you will just be fine!? And you can't go out now you need rest to heal, what if someone picks a fight with you, huh, what are you going to do!? And how can you have plans already?" Madoka said as she grabbed and clinged to his right arm, trying to pull him back towards the bed but he was as immovable as stone.

"I'm me." Ichika said, answering all three questions at once. He pulled out of her grip and exited the room.

*sigh* "Same old Ichika… different, **very** different, but the same." Madoka said happily and smiled, exiting the room herself and heading toward Chifuyu's hospital room.

* * *

[March 3rd, 8:03 p.m.]

[P.O.V. - Squall]

Squall had been driven to her knees the second she opened the door, and was now kneeling as if in front of royalty in the middle of the doorway. She was nearly drowning in killing intent, she struggled through each breath. Her head was in a deep bow, avoiding looking anywhere near the source of the suffocating aura.

"Squall, do you know why I ordered you here?" The voice was feminine, deadly cold, and forged in steel.

"..." She couldn't talk. She couldn't open her mouth. She couldn't move.

"You, Squall, are one of my most important subordinates. Meaning you have been loyal through many years, but do you know what that loyalty also means?" The womens' back was still turned.

"..."

"It means that you, above all, should know I do not tolerate insubordination."

"The boy wa-" **"SILENCE!"** The women roared before Squall could get out a sentence.

"I do not want your excuses!" She spat. "How could you fall victim to such a cliché weakness? You underestimated him! You were successful in capturing the main target and so you let your ego take control! You allowed a **prisoner**, a **PRISONER**, to not only escape, but to take with him **another** prisoner and **the** IS! In one fell swoop you lost not **one**, not **two**, but **THREE** of this organizations' most valuable assets!"

"My lady, Chifuyu Orimura will not-" "Do not say that name in my presence! That traitor has taken enough from me! I will not have her name spoken to take away my time as well."

"Of course, my lady. But your daug-ahk!" Before she knew it she was being held in midair, with a hand of steel crushing her windpipe. A long black IS blade was leveled at her throat, already digging into her skin producing a deep cut. Her blood began trickling down the massive blade.

"I have made it very clear that that **traitor** is no daughter of mine. She has forsaken that right after **stealing** her younger sister from me."

"O-of co-course my lady, I-" Squall was stammering to talk. She was doing her best to breathe with little success. Her face growing ever more panicked.

"I often find it wasteful to kill subordinates, but you have failed me three times in one. So-" The sword dug into her neck. "-I want you to give me a **very VERY** good reason to not pin your head on my wall." The metal claw of the Black IS loosened slightly, only enough to allow her to talk.

"I-" *Gasp* "I can still do-" *Gasp* "-what you have ordered, my lady. I can get your daughters for you, both will kneel at your feet as you have requested. I can get back the White Knight and the boy to atone for my failure."

"Do not make empty promises. You only managed to capture that **traitor** by overwhelming her with odds. I need not mention the fact that she was both exhausted physically and mentally, as well as drunk. If you fought her without all of those conditions, she would swiftly turn you into little more than **ash** blowing in the wind. As for that **boy**, the imposter, the only reason you were able to keep control of him was due to him being captured when he was a mere child. No doubt that even during his imprisonment his skills improved exponentially. Do not be so arrogant as to think you can take them **both**, especially now that their skills are together."

"I-I can, I swear on my life. Please, my lady. Allow me a chance to fix my mistakes." The women looked down at her with the look of a devil, and a shiver went down her spine.

"Kill the boy. He provided excellent bait but he is intelligent and wise, he will surely make a contingency plan in case he is kidnapped again so he could not be used as such bait. He made it clear no amount of torture will make him reveal information. In his escape he also showed his ability to pilot an IS. He is a loose cannon, eliminate him. As for the **real** Orimura siblings, I want them kneeling at my feet by the end of this year, or I will fulfill the oath you made on your life."

The claw of the IS opened and Squall dropped to the ground on all fours, clutching her throat and coughing hysterically while gulping down air. Her forehead was heavily laden with sweat.

"I want you to be exceptionally careful when dealing with these tasks, especially the boy. Make no mistake, as of now he is one of our largest threats, but he is also more. He now has the ability to pilot an IS, along with core 000 in his possession. He has... far too much potential." She said with a look of disgust on her face.

Squall quickly saw what the devil was getting at. "You think he could grow into your equal?-" Squall scoffed. "-my lady, be reasonable. I admit I may have underestimated him, but he could never pose a challenge to you."

The woman narrowed her eyes. "That is exactly what caused this problem Squall. Do **not** underestimate your opponents. The fact is that he is already a massive threat and still has overwhelming potential for growth, it is better to eliminate him before he is given the chance to grow into an even bigger threat to Phantom Task's... plans... I do not need to tell you what the consequences will be if you fail me a second time." The woman tilted her head upward as if she were royalty, looking down on Squall with stone cold eyes.

The devil paused for a second, seemingly considering something.

"As for your resources, I will grant you command of an IS squadron for these tasks. If need be I may increase the amount."

"**One** squadron milady? But-" "Excuse me?" The womans' eyes narrowed, the deep blood red felt like it was boring into her soul. Her head bent further down to the floor in submission.

"Of course, my lady."

"Good. Now, you have your orders, see that they are followed through successfully."

* * *

**A/N: **All I really have to say is that I have no plans of having the whole "Orimura Clan" thing that I've seen in a lot of fanfictions.

Chifuyu and Madoka's mother does have a history that will be revealed, but there isn't a whole bunch of Orimuras out there, it's just her and her daughters.

Right now I'm out of school so I'm trying to update as much as I can, but once I start college updates will likely slow down.

* * *

**Personal Responses: **

**Just Some Guy: **Ya. Chapter 4 is without a doubt my favorite chapter so far. In ranking I'd say 4,1,5,2,3. I'm doing my best to keep all of the chapters on the same level of quality, but there is no denying chapter 4 was by far the best.


	6. Chapter 6

[March 27th, 2:37 p.m. ]

Ichika had gone straight to Chifuyu when he exited the room, limping the whole time. Apparently the bullet wound had been one of his "minor injuries" that the IS hadn't fully healed. Luckily, based on the scar, the bullet had gone through his entire leg instead of staying inside. Believe it or not Ichika knew that was better, less of a chance of more shattered bone fragments, which would take even longer to heal.

After he made sure Chifuyu was still fine, he focused on his own wounds. Ichika was more than used to pain, but his wounds did hurt. He had an extremely high pain tolerance, hell he didn't even notice he had gotten shot in the leg, but that was when he was hyped on adrenaline and now he **definitely** noticed it. However, he was less upset about the pain and more upset that it might impede his work.

After exiting Chifuyus' room he was confronted by a blushing nurse that informed him he was still only in a hospital gown. Ichika knew that, he just didn't care. But he knew other clothes were needed, people would bother him too much if he just walked around nearly naked and he didn't want to spend his time getting arrested for indecent exposure. He got an extra pair of clothes from the hospital, and a key to the new Orimura household from Madoka when he was in Chifuyu's hospital room.

Madoka told him that Chifuyu had prepared him a room right after buying the house, even though he was thought dead. Her faith that he was still alive lightened his mood. Chifuyu had apparently searched the ruins of their old house herself to pick out any surviving belongings of his, and had put them in his new room.

It took him a short walk, but he arrived at the house. Ichika went to his new room. It became clear that Chifuyu had done her best to completely recreate his old room. The new room had the exact same layout. On the new desk appeared to be a current version of his old supercomputer. _Tabane._ He smirked. A few photo frames and what appeared to be the only surviving remnants of what used to be his old designs and inventions were held by shelves. Everything but the computer was covered in a thick layer of dust, as if once filling the room neither Chifuyu or Madoka had entered again.

He wasn't worried about the inventions. Most of those had just been small things he had been tinkering with. Any of the bigger inventions had already been built, or he had given copies to Tabane for safe keeping.

He approached the computer. Glancing to it's left he saw a phone, wallet, and a carrot shaped notepad. He opened the wallet to find some ten thousand Yen notes (Hundreds in US dollars), a black Credit Card, and a key card of some kind whose background was a picture of him sitting on Tabane's shoulders when he was 6.

Ichika tucked the wallet into his back pocket and picked up the notepad, flipping to the front page.

Ikkun,

Hi hi hi! Welcome back to Ikkun. The world of the living has been quite boring without you, yes it has! I hope you can fix that. ;) Sorry I couldn't get your permission, but I need to tell you that I have sold the rights to the Active Inertia Canceller design. I don't remember who I sold it to, but I kept your half of the money from all of our inventions and designs I have sold over the past years. The weird goth credit card thingy is hooked up to the bank with all of your money. Enjoy!

-Your favorite genius inventor,

Tabane-nee

_She kept my half of the money? And she continued to split the money earned from inventions she built that I didn't even help with…. that's…. nice…. really nice. I'll need to find a way to thank her._

Ichika began to flip through the other pages of the notebook, all of which were filled with cartoon drawings of Tabane, which made him chuckle. He set it aside and picked up the phone.

Opening it he saw various apps, one lead him to his bank account which held a ludicrous amount of zeros. In his contacts were Tabane, Chifuyu, and Madoka, respectively. The "photo" app was filled with selfies of Tabane, most of her in various cosplays. Some were more... daring... than others. He rolled his eyes, but it did get a small smirk out of him.

He walked to a mall to buy necessities, mainly clothes considering he had none other than the ones he was wearing now. Ichika hated the mall, full of people and people and people, all staring at him for various reasons. It could've been the fact that he had an eyepatch, or the missing hand, or that he was presumed dead and then showed up one day carrying the recently missing Chifuyu. The hospital had been surrounded by the press, he quickly dashed through them, but they had gotten quite a few photos of him that were now plastered on every television screen he saw. Then again, maybe it was because he was the genius apprentice/partner of Tabane Shinonono and that his inventions had perfected the IS.

_This is only going to get worse once they find out I can pilot an IS. *sigh* What an annoyance._

Ichika had bought very little, he wasn't one to waste. He was now dressed in more preferable clothing; dark jeans, a leather jacket with sunglasses that gave him a "bad-boy" look, and a black T-shirt with the Kurazakura plastered on the front. He felt very hot in the clothing, having gotten used to being near naked for five years, he chose the sunglasses to help prevent at least some people from recognizing him, and chose the jacket to cover up all the scars on his arms. Though the clothing was somewhat hard to find, he was near six foot now. That may have been only above average in most of the world but in Japan, that was a solid 5 inches above the average height. To put a fine point on it, he stuck out of a crowd… significantly.

After the mall he went straight to an apartment complex for the first step of his actual plans. He used some money to rent an apartment. He didn't want to live in the current Orimura household. It just felt… different. He was a different person now than he had been. Living in the house, even if it was only a remake of the old one, still would've felt like he was trying to live someone else's life.

The apartment was because he needed a private place to begin his plans before he had time to purchase a permanent place of residence. The first big thing he would do was build a mechanical hand and new eye, as well as a few cybernetic implants to improve or reconstruct his body in various places.

Ichika knew he couldn't build the hand and eye in the apartment, it was too small for any kind of machinery. He would need large and very advanced equipment to build the mechanical replacements. Ichika easily bid for and won a large home not far from the Orimura house, he offered to give more money if the deal was closed quickly, to which the owner accepted. Of course it would take days or weeks for the paperwork to be completed. In the meantime, he started the design for the hand since that took priority over the new updated eye as well as being the design that would take the longest.

He had pre-paid for the apartment for months so he could have a place for as long as he needed. Days quickly flew by as he filled his time with designing the hand and eye, the hand took him three days and he then completed the eye in a little less than two. Madoka had texted him an obscene amount of times, he simply reaffirmed that he was alright, but busy. Everyday Madoka updated him on Chifuyu's condition, but it was always the same. She's still asleep but the doctors say she's getting better. He wanted to be able to create some magic serum that would wake her up instantly, but… hell. He was an Engineer, and frankly making some "miracle medicine" was in a completely different area of science. So he would be forced to just wait for Chifuyu to wake up.

Presently, a few weeks after he had woken up, Ichika was in the lab room of the house he had bought. Right now the lab was just a random room in the house that he kept all of the machinery. He wanted to make a super secret hidden laboratory, but he had a lot on his plate, so he had postponed building a laboratory.

Ichika felt **amazing**. His body had mostly healed in the hospital, but now he had given his body time to rest. His body was at one hundred percent for the first time since the day he was taken and he felt like he could take on an army, but he reminded himself to keep his confidence in check.

He was currently sitting on an operating table as large machines lowered the brand new eye into his face. It worked slowly and accurately, not causing Ichika any pain as it attached the eye to his body. Ichika heard a small **hiss. **Having fully attacked the new eye, the machines automatically moved out of his way. He sat up and got off the surgical table.

"Cybernetic eye, version alpha. Test 1. Bootup password 0R1MUl24." He spoke aloud to seemingly no one.

The mechanical eye flickered to life as he stood in place. It looked stone cold and completely devoid of life. The pupil began glowing intensely until it slowly died down, the eye finally looking identical to a biological one, with an illusion of life behind it. In seconds the pupil rapidly flashed a rainbow colors, each always more intense than the last.

It was a very weird experience. For one thing his field of vision had widened dramatically. It felt like his vision was a camera that just zoomed out. He was pretty sure those were all good things, but it would take a while to get used to, that was certain.

With a glance around the room he confirmed that the eye was functioning properly.

_Well. It might not be perfect, and there's no replacing my biological one, but it will….suffice…. I suppose._

As the mechanical eye Tabane had made long ago was, it was not seamless with his face. Yes, technology had progressed far in the ten years since he obtained his first mechanical eye. However, he preferred that the eye was unseemly, he was not ashamed of his wounds and was proud of what he had survived to obtain them and he wanted people to know that. It let people know he was not one to be messed with, as well as giving off an aura of dominance, which he enjoyed.

Unfortunately, since Ichika was highly stressed for time, the only things his new eye could do was fill the void left by their organic counterparts. He wanted to add many advanced features to each cybernetic, but he simply didn't have the time.

The new eye still had the kaleidoscopic part to it, since he knew Tabane loved that part for some reason, so if the fact that it was made of metal wasn't enough to tell you that it was fake the changing eye color would.

With his eye being complete he was now finished with his cybernetic modifications to his own body. He would probably make modifications and improvements every once in a while, but for now he could check them off the list.

The hand was installed a day ago and it worked flawlessly. Though he wanted to finish it as soon as possible he had added a few tricks to the hand, mainly to guarantee his protection even farther. There was a small Passive Inertia Canceller built into the bit of arm and hand. Inside the bit of arm was the power cell for the Passive Inertia Canceller, and the fingertips of his hand would open when he used the PIC.

It felt like a new muscle that he could flex to activate. It was far less powerful than one built into an IS, but that was to be expected because of it's small size. Ichika was fine with that, he just wanted a trump card that would provide himself with a solid defense. He mainly just wanted something to prevent himself from getting shot. Sure, he was an expert in hand to hand combat and knew himself to be one of the best swordsmen in the world, having invented his own styles during his time before his escape from the Phantom Task prison. If he was really desperate he could use his genius to look at the barrel of a gun, predict the bullet's path, and block it. But, as they say, "luck favors the prepared" and he wanted luck to always be on his side.

Even though the PIC was small it took up all of the extra space in the mechanical hand, so he couldn't add any offensive perks to it which was disappointing, but it was nice to have a defensive trump card.

Ichika finished up the testing on the eye and went into the bedroom to shower and finally sleep after a long day of nonstop working on the mechanics. He had finally finished his first major project, the next would be to build his second IS, but that would be a much longer and time consuming process, so he decided to put it off for now.

A **ding **woke Ichika. He blinked the tiredness out of his eyes and sat up on his bed, snatching his phone from the nightstand next to it. The text was from Madoka, Chifuyu had woken from her coma.

* * *

[March 28th, 6:33 a.m.]

[The Hospital]

Incredible confusion was an understatement to describe the condition Chifuyu was currently in. One minute she was fighting for her life after being overwhelmed by IS pilots, the very next second she found herself drowsily looking around a hospital room. Multiple IV bags were pumping fluids into her system, assuring she remained hydrated. She felt awful. Her muscles were all overwhelmingly sore and her energy was entirely drained. Across from her was a window with closed blinds, but she could see sunlight bleeding through the crevasses.

Chifuyu noticed Madoka sitting at her left side, looking at her with the biggest smile she had seen in a long time. Madoka was clearly happy that she had woken up, but she must have been ecstatic to have a smile that wide. She could see Madoka's eyes dampening.

"Explain." She demanded. Her voice was slightly scratchy, and sounded deeper and more threatening than it usually did, which was already quite a lot.

Madoka's smile only grew, she lunged at Chifuyu and wrapped her in a tight embrace. Chifuyu was taken aback, sure Madoka was always nice to her, but crying with joy while hugging her was a little much. She gave her sister a small hug back. "Ok, ok. Can you explain to me why I'm in a hospital bed?" Chifuyu didn't want to mention being almost killed by their mother.

Madoka nodded and pulled back, Chifuyu could swear her smile got even bigger.

"You're going to be so happy Chifuyu…" Madoka said, wiping away her tears of happiness. "It is a really long story though." She said.

"Well? I'm obviously not going anywhere." Chifuyu said, urging Madoka to start, especially because it was supposed to make her "so happy".

"Where should I start… Oh I know. ICHIKA'S ALIVE!" Madoka shouted at the top of her lungs.

All thinking in Chifuyus' brain stopped dead with those two words she had hoped to hear for five years. "Wh-Where is he?" She said, trying to maintain a cool and cold exterior but failing miserably.

"Oh!" Madoka stuck her tongue out and hit her head. "I haven't told him you're awake yet." She said getting out her phone and apparently texting Ichika. "I'll tell Tabane-chan too."

But at that moment a too recognizable squeal was heard as the door burst open and a woman dressed in a very revealing nurse costume with bunny ears walked into the room. _Great. _Chifuyu thought, but in truth she was happy to see her longest and only friend.

"What are you doing here Tabane?" Chifuyu questioned as she sat up in the hospital bed, even though she was her friend she wanted to limit the number of people that saw her in a weakened state.

"Well…" Tabane plopped down on the bed. "Just like Madocchi was saying, you're finally awake. Oh and by **finally** awake I'm talking about the month and a half you've been sleep sleepin' in." She said while bouncing up and down on the bed like an energetic child.

"I don't care about that, you said Ichika was alive!" Chifuyu said towards them both.

"I was going to explain before Tabane-chan came in." Madoka said accusingly towards Tabane, but she just smiled in response.

"Oh, yep, he's back! My perfect apprentice is back! I'm a little disappointed he didn't visit me though." Tabane said energetically, frowning at the end.

"He has only texted me to ask how Ane[Big Sister] was doing, but got annoyed when I kept texting him. Something about building a new hand, plans, andhaving217messagesfrommeinoneday." Madoka spit out the last part as quickly as she could.

"CAN SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT IS GOING ON?!" Chifuyu yelled over their conversation, desperately trying to finally get some answers. Tabane stopped jumping on the bed favoring sitting on the end instead, her hectic behavior disappeared and was replaced with a plain face of seriousness. Madoka focused her attention on her sister.

The two shared a look, Tabane shrugged, and Madoka proceeded. "Once you disappeared for a few days, the world went crazy since the strongest person in it was gone. Then about a month ago Ichika walked into a hospital in America carrying you in his arms. He was covered in wounds and blood, not to mention missing a hand and his mechanical eye, looking **really** **REALLY **pissed before he fainted on the spot. The doctors said that his injuries looked much worse than they were, but also that he was absolutely covered in scars."

She took a deep breath. "You were in a medically induced coma, because Phantom Task was keeping you asleep so you wouldn't be a threat and apparently put enough sedatives into your body it should've killed you. After the doctors said both you and Ichiak were okay to be moved, I had you two transported back to Japan, to a hospital a few kilometers from home."

She paused allowing Chifuyu to digest the information, then continued. "After a few days, Ichika woke up, but the doctors said since you were in a coma there was no telling how long it would take for you to wake up. Ichika didn't say much about what happened. Just that he was taken to a prison and escaped. Then he found out you were being kept in the same prison as him, so he took you with him. He's… different. I mean… he's still the handsome, multitalented, cocky mega-genius. He doesn't talk much, he seems emotionless, I mean he's nice, or has been to me at least. But he was always the optimist y'know, constantly joking at us trying to get us to laugh, the shoulder we could cry on. Now… I mean… I just don't know. He seems like a different person, which I suppose he is. I'm worried about him, Chifuyu." Madoka finished, frowning as her eyes glazed over with the start of tears.

"I'm sure he'll be fine." Chifuyu said, putting on a strong front, but she felt like her heart had been ripped out of her chest.

"OH!" Madoka shouted. "He said that to escape he piloted an IS!" She said, her classic smile returning. "He lost it in the fight to escape though."

That brought extreme reactions from both Tabane and Chifuyu. Tabane squealed with glee while Chifuyu went completely silent trying to process the amount of information she had been given.

"Isn't that great?" Madoka said.

"..." Chifuyu was blanking on what would happen, but came to the conclusion that Ichika could take care of himself.

"Hello." Came an extremely calm, light and smooth voice. Even with the light tone of the voice the occupants jumped slightly, not knowing another person had entered the room. Madoka and Tabane turned around as Chifuyu turned her gaze.

Ichika was leaning on the entrance to the hospital room with the same clothes he had been wearing for weeks. Dark jeans with a belt to hold them up. A black T-shirt with the Kurazakura plastered on the front in a fighting pose. An open leather jacket, keeping the picture on his shirt in full view, his sunglasses were hanging from the center of the shirt, slightly pulling it down. As he was not wearing the glasses, his pure white eyepatch was left in full view. Where his mechanical eye was metal parts extended slightly further into his face, allowing you to still see some of the cybernetics even with the eyepatch covering the eye.

Once extremely long hair was now cut short to stay out of his face. The dark hair turning into a spike at the front of his head.

His pair of sunglasses hung from the center of his T-shirt. His head was slightly tilted as he analyzed the occupants of the room. The usual fire in his natural eye seemed to have dimmed, and was looking upon the three with a warm and comforting look.

"IKKUN!" Tabane lunged at her former apprentice. Ichika backed up slightly, not feeling comfortable with having people touch him yet. Noticing this, Tabane instantly stopped, looking sadly at Ichika for a second before slowly walking forward, giving time for Ichika's permission, then lightly embracing him.

"It's good to see you too, Tabane." Ichika replied, but his face remained devoid of emotion. He set the wild woman back on the ground as she pouted at him.

"Did you see the note? Did you like your presents?" She looked at him like a child desiring approval from their parents.

"I did. Thank you, they will all be very helpful."

"Yay!" Tabane jumped up and down, as her face lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Can I look at the hand? Oooo! And the eye?" She questioned after calming herself down. Ichika seemed to consider for a second, then forced himself out of his comfort zone and extended the mechanical hand to Tabane. She began looking it over then looked up to Ichika, he nodded and she began examining it. Then she shifted and flipped up his eyepatch, looking over his mechanical eye. She stepped back and smiled. "Impressive as always, Ikkun."

Both Madoka and Chifuyu were looking sadly at the mechanical parts, but Tabane just looked glad he had been able to make replacements.

"Thank you." Ichika replied with politeness, with his vision locked on Chifuyu. It wasn't that he didn't want to talk to Tabane, he very much so did. But Chifuyu was still hospitalized, so assuring her health took priority. Tabane saw this and smiled. "Well I think I'll be going, see you around Ikkun~." She said as she kissed his left cheek and left.

"Ah… ya… I think I'll just… ah… " Madoka stumbled through her words as she awkwardly left the room, but not before giving Ichika an overdue hug.

Chifuyu had still been expecting the old Ichika, she thought he would come in the door laughing, cracking jokes the whole time, then leaping into his precious sister's protective arms. It was one thing to hear how different he was, it was another to see it.

Ichika simply stood there, unmoving with a blank expression. His face was covered in scars, though most were light. She was sure that much worse scars likely littered his body. His eyes, one a dark reddish brown, the other a kaleidoscopic mechanical replacement, both showed a mix of pain and cold calculation but were balanced with a warm welcoming and wisdom far beyond his years.

Ichika's hair looked darker than night itself, freshly cut short to stay out of his face.

She may have been sitting but could tell even if she stood to her full height he would tower over her. His figure was of a swimmers body, one that was thin with no fat and covered in muscles as hard as brick. His hands were placed neatly in his jacket pockets. He stood tall with perfect posture and a puffed out chest. Confident, cool, calm, collected, but also modest, warm and understanding… dominant in all aspects. Yes, his presence demanded respect and attention, but also gave one the feeling that even as a stranger they could open up and he would never judge them. A teenager, but she held no doubt, the wisest person in every room.

This wasn't the little kid she had lived with for years. The one that would always be joking and laughing, practically begging for her attention, which she loved. This wasn't the boy she had saved and taken under her wing. No, that boy had been torn to shreds because her own mother wanted to get to her through him. He had been tortured for years, and it was her fault. He would no doubt know she was the reason he was kidnapped and tortured, surely he hated her with every fiber of his being. She was killing herself as each second passed, hating herself for allowing Ichika to go through what he had, even though she could only guess specifics.

A tear dropped from her left eye as she and Ichika continued to stare at each other. That was when Ichika moved in and wrapped his arms around her, surprising her greatly considering his previous behaviors.

He may have not wanted to touch anyone, but he'd be damned if he let anyone he cared about cry from sadness.

"I… missed you too, Onee-chan." Ichika said as he pulled back and wiped more tears from her eyes. That was when the dam broke, providing the complete opposite effect Ichika had intended. He sat on her bed and hugged her tighter, while petting her head. "It's alright. I am fine." He said in a softer voice with a much gentler tone, one that he rarely used, though his face held no emotion. At that moment she could have mistaken that he was in fact the one that had taken in and raised her.

Chifuyu tried to say something, but through tears and sobs it didn't sound like anything. Ichika laid her head in his lap and took her hair. _No doubt she is still tired. _He thought, beginning to hum to lull her into a sleep. _Not to mention she still has a mixture of drugs in her body. _After a few minutes the crying stopped as she fell asleep. He smiled though it barely showed, and moved her body back to a sleeping position on the hospital bed, tucking her in. _She'd kill me if I ever mentioned this. The big bad brunhilde, lulled to sleep like a babe. _He chuckled to himself. With that last thought he left the room, walking past Madoka on his way out.

* * *

[March 28th 6:24 p.m.]

[AMERICA. Indianapolis, Indiana.]

[Ruins of the Phantom Task "Heavy Prison"]

Corn. Why was there so much corn? He had to driven for a couple hours after landing to get to the start of his hike to the prison, and he had passed at least a million corn feilds.

The flight back to America was about 9 hours, but it would've been a whole lot more if he didn't take Tabane's automated and self designed private jet. It made the trip at least 4 hours quicker, easily. If anything, at least he had been comfortable. Plus since it was Tabane's self designed jet, it had a lab on board that he had taken full advantage of to begin blueprints on upgrades to his eye.

He could have purchased a private plane himself, but he didn't have the time to look for one. _*sigh* I should really get some employees to take care of things for me. Someone I can trust to get me something If I ask for it, so I don't have to take time to buy groceries or do the dishes. Maybe I could get a maid- "Or butler" _Shirokishi interjected. _-or butler…. hmmmm, ya that sounds good. I think I'll do just that. _Ichika concluded as he continued to hike through a dense forest.

Honestly, the wilderness he found himself in was quite pretty. Dense flora and fauna surrounded him, all in a variety of colors. Leaves of various shades of green accompanied the healthy dark brown of tree trunks, sticks, and dead leaves that crunched at his feet. More than once he had to remind himself of his reason for being here, just to avoid looking for the crunchiest looking leaf.

'_There it is'. _Ichika said as he brushed a tree limb out of the way and stepped out into the massive opening in the forest. "_No wonder no one found this place. That hike took you at least an hour, and you sprinted for quite a lot of it." 'Mmm.' _Ichika hummed in agreement.

He gazed upon the ruins of the place he once called hell. It looked like someone had taken more than just a wrecking ball to it. The building was completely leveled to the ground. As he walked towards it he could still see a large patch of blood stained grass in the area outside the facility.

"_EW!"_ Shirokishi loudly said telepathically as Ichika's gaze fell upon the rotting flesh of a severed arm.

'_That's Squall's.' _

"_Yeah, I know. I went through your memory when we bonded…"_

'_Problem?'_

"_No. I was just hoping you had killed her."_

'_Then don't worry. Squall will soon die by our blade.' _Ichika replied with sheer confidence. He couldn't see Shirokishi, but could feel her smiling wickedly through their link.

"_Sensors detect no signs of life." _Ichika nodded as he walked up to what used to be the entrance to the building. The first floor was completely leveled to ruins, so instead of walking through a door he simply hopped over what remained of a wall.

'_Figures'._ Ichika thought as he gazed upon a control room which had been razed to the ground. '_Not that I thought they would be foolish enough to leave their computers intact, but it was worth a shot.'_

What was left of the elevator shaft was now simply a seemingly bottomless pit. He looked over the gap as the pit looked as though it would swallow him whole.

'_Hmmm. Ideas?'_

"_We could fly down, but my frame would not fully fit. It already created those large gashes in the elevator shaft when we escaped. Since you haven't repaired my frame fully, " _

'_That would be a no.' _Ichika replied as he began gazing around the ruins. *sigh* '_Guess I can just do this physically.'_

"_You will certainly not! You are not fully healed. Might I remind you that you still have a limp? Might I remind you that you need cybernetics to help you breath? You have another month at minimum until your body will be able to function without cybernetic enhancements."_

'_It will be fine. I'll just be extra careful.'_ He could feel her pouting.

"_Promise?"_ She asked in a sullen voice.

'_Pinky promise. Look-' _Ichika pointed. '_-It even has a ladder. I'll be perfectly safe.'_

"_Humph…. Fine." _With Shirokishi no longer on his back, he gripped the top rung of the ladder and braced his feet against the ones below.

* * *

[6:42 p.m.]

[Floor 11]

He had first climbed to the bottom floor, the one in which what was once Chifuyu's cell was at. The amount of blood and stench of rotting corpses had been so potent it almost made him puke. Luckily, the only thing he needed to do on that floor was confirm the two IS Guards had died. He could find one body, and the crushed frame of both the IS. As for the other pilot, he wasn't sure. It was possibly she had somehow gotten out from under the crushing weight of the debris, or perhaps her body was covered in too much debris for him to find it.

He had also gone to the secret room below the bottom floor, in which the Shirokishi had been kept, but it was completely barren, leaving him with nothing to do other than exploring the floor his cell had been on.

'_That took longer than expected…. my wounds have taken their toll.'_ Ichika thought as he walked into the large hallway, stopping to catch his breath.

"_I told you you shouldn't have relied on your body so soon! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!" Shirokishi scolded his rashness._

'_Calm down. Calm down. I'm fi…..' _Ichika trailed off as he entered the hallway of the floor his cell was on.

'_...ne' _He looked around, skimming the long hallways and corridors. "Damn." He looked at the dozens of rotting corpses and blood stained floors. Flies hovering around the rotting flesh. The bottom floor had been like that too, but to a lesser extent since the parts of the ceiling that hadn't fallen were so high up. However, the hallways now reminded him of catacombs. The explosives Squall set off had damaged the base to such an extent that the halls were now filled to the brim with large chunks of stone and rubble.

The walkway was almost completely blocked, to get to his cell he had to climb above the debris and crawl between the broken rocks and ceiling of the hall. Every once in a while he could see bars that lead to an open cell, but the prisoners they once held were either dead or missing. Likely either they had escaped in the chaos, or Phantom Task had returned to move all of the prisoners.

It took a lengthy amount of time to reach what was once his cell, but once he did things got easier.

'_My cell must've been made with thicker walls. It's holding up the crushing weight of the collapsed higher floors….' _

He thought as he climbed out of the crawlspace like hallways into a small bit of mostly intact hall which led to his cell.

Rubble crunched under his feet as he walked toward the entrance. Ducking under a sharp piece of rebar that was sticking out of the ceiling, he entered the cell, passing a massive metal door that had been blown off its hinges.

Surveying the room he could see the relatively fresh dead bodies lying where they had fallen. He could see the long dead body of his former cellmate and the scuff the grenade explosion had created.

Ichika walked over to an odd looking small pile of bodies, a monument of gore and flesh sitting on blackened dried blood. Noting that the pile looked man made, he figured it could be a trap, and kicked the pile, only for the corpses on top to fall. Nothing. Maybe he was being paranoid.

He analyzed the bodies, trying to identify a specific corpse, only to come to the realization he couldn't find it. Autumn.

'_**She**_ _got away.'_


	7. Chapter 7

[April 13th, 7:30 a.m.]

As he predicted, word spread fast that the world's first male IS user had been found, not to mention it was the same person who was already famous for coming back from the dead, for being Tabane Shinonono's apprentice, for being a genius, for… well you get the idea. It was expected, but annoying, before there were quite a few television and news stations talking about him coming back from the dead, but now you couldn't walk in public without seeing his face.

If he had to be exact he was probably the most famous person on the planet, well... now at least, hopefully his fame would dile down soon. He had already been up there with Tabane and Chifuyu for his own achievements, but now it was just ridiculous.

Tabane had intentionally leaked the information immediately after leaving the hospital, she knew Ichika would rather get the reveal over sooner than later. Many were understandingly skeptical, but after being provided with a basic Uchigane, he had demonstrated his ability and the world was ecstatic. He was constantly being pestered with questions of what he would do with the 1 in 3.5 billion chance, but one glare from Chifuyu and a creepy smile from Tabane and suddenly the pestering disappeared.

Frankly, Ichika had more on his plate than he knew what to do with.

Resurrecting himself from the dead, legally speaking, which he had thankfully gotten off his plate quickly.

Ichika had to design and build a personal IS for himself to use since he obviously couldn't use the White Knight. To save time he would probably only build an altered Uchigane, not a traditional personal unit. It wouldn't compare to if he made himself a personal unit, but it would save much time.

Ichika needed to train himself to become a formidable IS pilot, but training was a constant goal.

He also had various smaller goals and things he was working on, he was an inventor after all.

Not to mention Tabane had requested she help him with the design and building of the first fourth generation IS. Unfortunately for her, he was simply too busy at the moment, and that would have to wait.

To sum up, "busy" would be the understatement of the century.

As a surprise for Madoka, he had made improvements to the personal IS unit the government had given her. Meaning the third generation IS now shared some similarities to what would later be the fourth generation. He knew he had to do that before the school year began, so he had done that before anything else.

Though he was extremely busy, Ichika had completed another goal of his, one which led to the current situation he was in.

He had become a teacher to students his own age.

Apparently the principle of the IS Academy had suddenly retired a week before Ichika returned, right before the school year had begun. Chifuyu, who unbeknownst to Ichika had become a teacher at the Academy, had been rapidly promoted to fill the position. This meant that class 1-1 of the Academy would now only have one teacher, as opposed to the usual two each class had.

Most of the Academy administration had panicked, it was a couple of weeks before the start of the new year, and they were down a teacher. The position was one that required long experience and vast knowledge on the IS, unfortunately there really wasn't anyone who could fill that position. The IS had only been released 10 years ago, give or take. The most experienced people on the IS were already teachers at the Academy, besides maybe a few select pilots across the globe that stayed in their home countries.

Luckily, as if a miracle, the apprentice of Tabane Shinonono had come back from the dead. As if to tease fate, he had proven he was the first and only male that could pilot an IS. Normally, Ichika would be forced to prove his skills and IS knowledge, but with mere days left to fill the position, they reached out to him through Chifuyu. Chifuyu was adamant that Ichika not take the position due to what he had been through, Tabane had agreed and offered that Ichika live with her off the radar. He understood Chifuyu's sentiments and Tabane's offer was incredibly tempting, but in the end he decided that if he could help teach the next generation of IS pilots, he would.

He warned the Academy that he had very little experience with actually piloting an IS, but they batted it away. He denied any payment and the Academy immediately hired him, seeing his employment as solid gold.

Due to the fact that the IS Academy was a boarding school, he was given an apartment in the teachers' quarters. Although, it looked more like a five star hotel room than "some apartment".

A living room with a couch, chairs, and television. A kitchen with an island, oven, microwave, all the necessities. A large bathroom with a shower, tub, toilet and sink. Lastly a master bedroom with a massive bed, empty shelves, a nightstand, and a desk and chair. Honestly, he could live in the single apartment without complaint for the rest of his life.

Ichika had brought a lot to the "dorm", smaller versions of equipment to allow for hand to hand adjustment of his mechanical hand or eye. He brought another equipment bag full of his personally made fighting equipment that contained four high grade katanas, knives, a pair of silver handguns, and various other weapons. Each piece of weaponry had the ORIMURA name delicately carved into it. He didn't care if he was in what some considered to be the safest place on earth, there were thousands of IS pilots and IS here, and that painted a large target on the Academy. Also, he was far from proficient in firearms, so he brought two to practice with.

The empty shelves in his bedroom were now packed with books, some of which were Ichika's personal journals with many of his designs and notes inside. On top of the desk rested the three monitors of his supercomputer, sitting on the floor next to the desk was the actual computer. On a second desk that he had bought and easily fit into the room was the machinery to operate and adjust his mechanical hand and eye.

Ichika stood facing a large mirror in his bathroom. He was dressed in a lighter pair of jeans with a dark denim jacket to contrast, along with a light green T-Shirt. He had asked when he was hired and there was no dress code for teachers to adhere to, so he decided to make himself comfortable. His short hair was once again slightly gelled to spike in the middle of his forehead.

Unbenounced to anyone else he had laced every piece of clothing with millions of dollars of flexible carbon fiber. It was very thin as to not be noticed so it would be less effective, but it was far better than nothing. He had found and hired someone to lace his clothing, which was quite a specific skill to find, but with the amount of money he had it was easy to get someone to do it no questions asked. Sure it wouldn't do anything against bullets to his face, but you'd be surprised how many people don't immediately shoot for the head.

Under his clothes, on both hips were the two silver handguns he had made himself, sure he wasn't proficient in firearms but he could still use them effectively. Inside pockets in the jacket and tucked into his sleeves were incredibly thin knives. Ichika couldn't fit a large weapon like a katana, but it was enough. He wasn't taking **any **chances, refusing to be powerless again. His stoic face and eyepatch enforcing his intimidating and dominating aura. His golden tie was tucked into his back pocket, frankly he had no idea how to tie a tie. The short raven black hair on his head was pointed into a spike in the front. Looking in the mirror, he could see all of the scars that covered his face, neck, and right hand, the rest was covered by his clothes. Frankly he would still say he was relatively handsome, but the scars definitely took away from how attractive he could have been.

He was thankful it has still been a few days before school was in session when he moved in, because he knew that even in an Academy full of oddities, he would still be the center of attention. Unfortunately, today was the first day of classes, and the school would be filled with students and teachers. He had woken up a good while before classes began in an attempt to avoid that, which seemed to work as he slowly exited the room into an empty hall. After quietly closing the door he glanced at the names by the room numbers next to his. Chifuyu was to his left, at the end of the hall, apparently no one wanted to be next to her. The room to his right had the name Maya below the room number, he knew that would be his co-teacher.

His footsteps echoed across the walls of the empty hall. He continued to glance at the names above each room number, recognizing most as names of famous IS pilots or engineers. After a few minutes he reached the exit of the teachers' building, and exited, making his way to the massive school in the center of the area.

The "IS Academy" was far more than just an academy, it was more like a small city built on an artificial island. The actual school grounds were in the center of the island. They held the building in which classes were held which also had a cafeteria, five huge training arenas, an engineering center, various buildings for club activities, sports courts, and other random buildings for educational purposes.

Outside of the school grounds were the teacher and student dormitories, which were four large buildings of just apartments for the teachers and each year of students respectively. Even though there were significantly fewer teachers than students, the teachers building was still almost as large as the student buildings due to their dorm sizes.

Farthest from the center of the island were buildings dedicated to entertainment for the students and teachers. All of the buildings solely for the teachers, such as a bar, a private lounge, or private training areas for teachers, were in their own section. However, most of the buildings such as movie theaters, restaurants, fitness centers, etcetera, were open to all in the Academy.

There were thousands of people in the IS Academy, whether students, teachers, or other faculty, and the world wanted to make sure their every need was accommodated for. It was also funded by every nation in the world, meaning it had near endless funding, so money was not an issue.

Ichika had entered the 1st year building and made his way to classroom 1-1. He slid open the door and entered to find the room devoid of life. There were rows of empty seats, in front of which was a teacher's desk and stand. The wall opposite the entrance door was made completely out of windows. A large holographic screen was behind the stand, currently blank. He approached the window and took in the view of the surrounding Academy. The sound of the door opening drew his attention and his hand slid under the torso of his suit, grabbing onto a thin knife.

"Eh… E-Excuse me, who are you?" A nervous voice asked. _My co-teacher, I'd wager._

He slid the knife back into its pocket and turned around. Honestly, Ichika almost would have mistaken her for a student. She had a petite frame and was dressed in clothes that didn't match her body in the slightest. Her two most striking features being her olive green eyes and… noticeable assets.

*gasp* He heard her sharp intake of air as she instantly recognized him. "Y-you… you're-" She began stammering.

"Hello. My name is Ichika Orimura. Please, just call me Ichika." He saved her from stammering herself to death and bowed at a perfect 45 degrees.

"Ahhhh…" She was only staring at him.

"Are you quite alright?" He pushed.

"Me? Oh- ah… yes I'm fine, thanks." Whether she was blushing from embarrassment or infatuation, he couldn't tell… maybe both… probably both… definitely both.

"Ah. I um… Orimura-san…" She cleared her throat. "Ichika-kun, it… ah… is an honor to meet you. AH!" She mentally scolded herself, he had introduced himself and she had been so star struck she hadn't introduced herself. "M-My name is Maya Yamada, nice to meet you. And ah, please call me Maya too." She took a low bow.

"Well Maya, I suppose we shall see if it was a nice meeting."

Something clicked in her head. "Erm… why are you here? No! I-I mean, not that you aren't welcome here! I've heard of your ability to pilot an IS. I mean everyone has heard of your ability to pilot an IS, obviously. I was just ah… I mean are you going to be my student? **A** student! Are you going to be **a** student."

"No I am not a student. As you well know the principle of this Academy has retired.-" Maya nodded. "-Your former co-teacher, which just so happens to be my sister Chifuyu Orimura, was promoted to the position, leaving her teaching job vacant. After my "coming back from the dead", I was asked to fill in the job. After due consideration, I accepted the job."

"..." Maya had no response. Ichika was easily the most famous man in the world, if not the most famous person. Sure he was young but his achievements would be impossible to list. If you had to list how many people were fans of his, it was probably a solid half of the entire human population, probably more. She didn't know how to react to the fact that the person she had a poster of in her room at home had appeared in her class and claimed he would be her coworker for an indefinite amount of time.

"Maya." She broke out of her thoughts and realized Ichika had approached her to check if she was alright. She turned a much deeper shade of red and backed up. "Ahh…"

"Maya, class will begin in around an hour, I have read the syllabus of what material we must cover over the year and have made a lesson plan, unless you have already made one."

"Ahh...no." No matter how hard she tried she couldn't break herself out of her embarrassed and star struck attitude.

"Well then, I will set it up then, what shall you do Maya?" She panicked. She had been a teacher for a few years now, and Ichika was just starting. She should be the one leading the way for him, but instead he was taking the reins completely. She was going to make a lesson plan during the time till class began, but Ichika had made one and now she had no idea what to do.

"I-I guess I'll help you set up."

"That is very kind of you." She was trying very hard not to blush. She was failing spectacularly.

"Ah… right."

* * *

[8:25 a.m.]

The two teachers had finished preparation for their lesson plan. Maya had attempted to converse with Ichika, but always found herself stuttering before she could formulate a proper question to start a conversation. Her efforts were interrupted as the first warning bell rang for school and students started to pour in, all of which took a long look at Ichika before finding their seats and continuing to stare at him.

Maya had taken the position of standing behind the podium, while Ichika sat at the teachers desk in the corner of the room, wanting to allow Maya her chance to take charge of the class.

Madoka was one of the first people to enter the room and had a smile on her face ever since she saw Ichika sitting at the desk.

A few more minutes passed and the bell rang, Maya looked at Ichika and he gave a small nod.

"Everyone is here right?" Madoka nodded, being the only one not staring at Ichika. "Then let's start the SHR." Their teacher who had introduced herself as Maya Yamada said. "Erm… let's… start with the self-introductions."

_She seems to have so little confidence, but why? Her records indicate she was an admirable pilot and becoming a teacher at this academy is an achievement in and of itself. _He thought to himself as people began to introduce themselves. The constant staring was becoming unbearable, his right hand was beginning to tremor from being in a room with so many people, but he covered it up by slipping it into his pockets.

"Orimura Madoka-san." Yamada-sensei said, gaining no reaction from Madoka who was pouting at all the girls staring at her brother. _Maya, you are acting in far too nervous a manor, first impressions are important and they must know who is in charge now or you will have a hard time gaining their respect. _

"Orimura Madoka-san." She paused and waited for someone to stand, but no one did. Ichika turned his head to see a pouting Madoka staring at him.

"ORIMURA MADOKA-SAN?" Yamada-sensei repeated louder, Madoka continued to stare at Ichika, seemingly lost in thought.

"Orimura-san." Ichika stated, putting a slight strain on his normally soft tone.

Madoka broke out of her thoughts and shot up from her desk. "HERE!" She shouted embarrassingly loud, gaining many giggles from the rest of the class. She cringed and looked around awkwardly.

Ichika cleared his throat while looking accusingly at Madoka.

"Oh, right!" Madoka stood up in her seat. "My name is Madoka Orimura, younger sister of Ichika!" She said in a giddy yet territorial voice while smiling. _That really shouldn't be the first thing you say about __**yourself**__, but I am happy you think so highly of me. _He thought to himself.

Madoka sat down and Maya continued through the list, occasionally having to repeat herself to break a students stare at Ichika. However she was interrupted as a voice spoke up from the middle of the desks.

"Excuse me. Why exactly is **he** here?" A student with blonde princess curls pointed accusingly to Ichika. He sighed, knowing he was the elephant in the room.

"Ah… well…" Maya turned back to Ichika for help, he stood up and approached the middle of the podium.

"Hello everyone, my name is Orimura Ichika. Myself as well as Yamada-sensei will be your teachers for your first year at this academy. I will be teaching you the theoretical portions of the curriculum as well as the parts that have to do with IS engineering while Yamada-sensei will be teaching the more practical portions. I expect all of you to put a significant amount of effort into your studies. To those who don't understand, I will teach until you do. Do not hesitate to ask questions, no matter how foolish you think asking them will make you look. Remember, those who ask questions will fill the gap in knowledge they lacked, while those who did not will retain that gap in knowledge indefinitely. You do not have to like the way I teach nor do you have to like me personally, however you must do what I say or there will be consequences. Furthermore, I am not going to be an easy teacher to have, I will say that right now. You will have to work longer than every other class, study harder, and practice more. But… when you graduate this year I guarantee you will already be some of the greatest students this academy has ever had. Is this all understood?"

"KYAA?! It's the real Orimura-sama himself!"

"I love you!"

"I would gladly die for you Orimura-sama!"

"Ah~ great. I really wanted to switch him over."

_That will get old quickly… on second thought, it already did. _Ichika covered part of his face with his left hand and began to stroke his forehead while sighing.

"Regardless of whatever…opinions… you have already gained about me. I will be one of your teachers for this year, and I do expect all of what I said when I introduced myself to be taken seriously. So I will repeat myself, am I understood?" Most of the girls still looked gidy, but most nodded.

"This is unexceptable!" The same blond voice spoke up, the girl stood up and walked to the front of the class, standing in front of Ichika's desk. "Our teachers should be chosen strictly based upon skill, not fame. He only first demonstrated his ability to pilot an IS a **week** ago and is **our** age! He cannot possibly be qualified for this position, and having a **male **for our teacher is disgraceful! Do you expect me, Cecelia Alcott, to endure **this-**" She gestured to Ichika. "-embarrassment for an entire year?" The class, including Maya, all looked stunned at the students' rudeness.

Ichika remained seated with his calm demeanor. He maintained a chilling eye contact with the girl.

"Alcott-san." Maya spoke up. "Ah… I assure you all teachers of this academy are all required to demonstrate their skill, and while Orimura-sensei was personally asked to teach here, a demonstration of his skills was necessary. In fact, I was assigned to test his skills, and his performance was more than admirable."

"You expect me to believe that in the couple of **weeks** he claims to have had before he was tested on his IS piloting skill, that he-" She once again gestured to Ichika with disgust. "-became capable enough to put up a fight against an **actual** teacher of this academy." Madoka looked furious.

"... If you must now Alcott-san. In my and Orimura-sensei's duel to test his skill, he was in fact victorious." Maya stated. The class, who had intently been listening to the conversation, were all looking at Ichika in shock. However Cecelia had an incredibly doubtful look on her face. Madoka now held a smug expression on her face.

"..."

"..."

"P-please. He could not have possibly-"

"Alcott-san." Ichika finally ended his reign of silence and spoke up. "While I do assure you the truth of Yamada-sensei's statement, I believe enough class time has been wasted already. We need to move on."

Cecelia huffed, but took her seat.

"Before we continue with the descriptions of basic equipment you'll be using… this class must select a representative. They will be the one that competes in the interclass tournaments. They will, by name, be the class's representative and head, with all the accompanying responsibilities as well as a few benefits." Ichika explained. "You may recommend yourself or anyone else."

Mumbling spread throughout the class, Ichika simply ignored them as he continued to make notes in his school books, though he wasn't writing notes, just correcting any tiny errors he found in the school book.

"I recommend Orimura-chan." _Yes, Madoka would be the logical choice. Representative Candidate, good attitude and a people person, above average intelligence._

"I second that!"

Maya spoke up. "Then it is decided, the class representative will be-"

"Hold on a moment! I refuse to acknowledge this outcome." _Not her, again. _Many people rolled their eyes as Cecelia once again interrupted the flow of class.

"She has been hardly paying attention to the lesson the entire time, she would make a poor example and representative, and having her for our representative would be shameful!"

*sigh* "Very well, Alcott-san. I assume you are recommending yourself for the position.

"Yes, I am." She replied. _She does have confidence, which is good for a leader. However, her greatest strength is also her greatest weakness. She is a textbook narcissist. _

"After all I am a representative candidate and the **only **student to defeat an instructor in the entrance exam. She bragged. Madoka smirked.

"Actually, I defeated an instructor as well." Madoka spoke up, pointing an accusing finger at her. _This could be interesting. _

"Eh?"

"I defeated an instructor in the entrance exam." She repeated.

"What?! They told me **I** was the only student to defeat an instructor!" Cecelia looked taken aback.

Madoka laughed. "Maybe they did that so they wouldn't damage your oh so fragile pride." Many girls giggled, Cecelia went red faced.

Yamada-sensei had a worried face as if trying to figure out what to do, Ichika continued to sit calmly, once again clearing his throat to gain the class's attention.

"Well then. As we have two candidates for class representative I believe we could have a duel to decide, is that acceptable?" Cecelia and Madoka nodded.

"Very well. You two shall duel next Monday after school, is this agreeable?"

Both girls once again nodded in approval.

* * *

[3:15 p.m.]

Class continued like nothing had happened. The last class went along slowly, extremely slowly in his opinion, but time passed and Ichika eventually found himself in front of Madoka's dorm with her standing next to him. She had approached him for tips on the duel, which he had given, though he wouldn't tell her anything he wouldn't tell any other student. She questioned what he would be doing and he informed her he would primarily be practicing IS piloting this week.

With a goodbye, Madoka entered her dorm and Ichika began walking to the teachers private practicing arenas. He had hardly started on building his personal IS and knew that as of now if he was forced to fight it would be in an Uchigane or Rapheal Revive.

He walked through the bustling halls as the girls continued to create a huge path for him to walk in. None had approached him and only Madoka and Cecelia had actually talked to him. If you could call Cecelia's insulting "talking". One girl waved at him as he passed, he waved back to her surprise.

After a few minutes of walking he reached an IS storage building. He grabbed an unactivated Uchigane, which was in the form of a bracelet, and slid it onto his right wrist. Taking a few more minutes to find his destination he finally found himself in one of the teachers practice arenas.

* * *

[10:30 p.m.]

Ichika's clothes were drenched in a thick layer of sweat. His white T-shirt was almost completely see through, but with the tint you couldn't see any of the scars, only the deep definitions of muscle. He had trained for around five hours solely on IS piloting, then went to the Academy gym.

A sound of a gunshot resonated through the near empty gym each time he hit the punching bag in front of him. The few occupants of the gym had been staring at Ichika ever since he entered, which had now been around two hours. He hit the bag so fast it was difficult to distinguish the sounds of his punches. A metallic snap could be heard as the chain of the punching bag cracked as the weight of the bag swung around. He wound the last punch, which whizzed through the air as the bag swung back towards him.

**Slam! **A small but sharp tingle of pain shot through his hand as it stopped instantly.

His gaze wandered from the hand that had caught his punch to the woman it was attached to.

"Chifuyu-nee." Ichika instinctually said. "Orimura-san." He corrected himself, she was ever so particular about those things.

Chifuyu was dressed as professionally as possible, that was quite clear. Tall heels that made her even more intimidating than she already would've been. A formal white shirt with a black business overcoat and matching skirt. A green tie, tied so tightly around her neck he was surprised she could breath. Black high heels with a pair of stockings covering her legs.

"It is fine, Ichika." Her face was not the incredibly fierce principle, but a nigh blank face of calmness. "School has been out of session for hours…. you don't need to refer to me as your superior."

"What's with the get-up then? Schools out of session and you're still wearing enough black to be one of those "Goth Girlfriends" you see in memes…." Ichika gave a small mischievous smirk, which he had picked up from his sisters. Chifuyu was not as amused, maybe even slightly embarrassed.

"We need to talk." That set off alarms, a lot of alarms. He moved aside, and began hitting another punching bag.

"Well then?" Ichika pushed for her to begin the conversation.

*sigh* "Where have you been Ichika?" He stopped hitting the bag out of respect for her, paying full attention to conversing with her.

He shook his head. "I've been training in the Gym for about two hours now."

"No." She shook her head. "I mean where have you been? You haven't been home in weeks."

"I go home almost every day."

"No." She shook her head again. "**Home**, Ichika. You haven't gone **home** since I got out of hospice. Madoka said you only even went into the house once. You haven't visited. You hardly text or talk to any of us." Ichika froze, caught off guard.

"I….I've been busy. I need to buil-" "Ichika." She grabbed a hold of his shoulders.

"You have bags under your eyes…. you know that? You look worse than when you got out of the hospital. I know you don't want to live in our house, and I know why, Madoka already told me what you told her. I don't care about that. I care about us not seeing you."

"..."

"...I know you are rushing yourself because you want to get back at the terrorists who kidnapped us. Who tortured you. But Ichika…what is the point of you escaping that prison if you're just going to do Phantom Task's job for them? You're working yourself to death. I've taught you a lot about life and this may be the last thing I have to teach."

She pulled his face close and made him look deep into her eyes. "

"There is no point in **surviving** if you're not **living**."

She let go of him, and gave him a rare love filled smile. Bright, wide, and shining teeth, oh how he enjoyed that smile.

"And I know you're clever enough to know what that means." With a turn, Chifuyu began to walk away.

"What about you then?" She stopped at Ichika's question, turning to face him.

She turned around. "Hmmm?"

"What about you? You work yourself just as hard as I have been, except you've been doing it for years. You bottle up your emotions and then drink from an actual bottle. Madoka said you only come home a few times a month, and never for long. Tabane hasn't seen you for almost a year, besides when you were in the hospital."

"..." An expression of surprise surfaced on Chifuyus face for a second, before she wiped it off.

"What about you, Chifuyu?" He pushed.

"...I….I will try-" "You **will**." "-I...will...do my best…. to stop." She conceded. This may have been the only time in his life he saw Chifuyu look awkward. She was moving her hands around awkwardly, clearly not knowing what to do with them.

"That is all I ask, Chifuyu." Ichika gave her a small smile.

"How about a bet, then?" He spoke up once again.

"Hmmm?"

"A bet. You would give the slightest effort if I asked, but I know you, you'll actually try if there is something on the line." He extended his right hand. "I will stop overworking myself and take care of my health. In exchange you will stop overworking yourself as well, and work on your drinking." Her eyes widened slightly. She tilted her head and looked with calculating eyes at his extended hand.

"You want to bet on our serious addictions to work and alcohol?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Well….if you don't want to take the-" "Of course I want the goddamn bet." She shook his hand harshly, while she tried to kill him with her eyes. She turned to walk away and finally end their interaction.

"Stakes?" Ichika asked, knowing she tried to avoid it.

"Fuck you." She continued to walk away.

"Are those the stakes?" He pushed with a smirk on his face. She stopped, flustered, before she continued walking away.

"Go to hell."

"How about a million dollars?" She stopped and turned around, once again defeated in ending their interaction.

*sigh* "I don't have a million dollars, Ichika."

"Guess you'll just have to win the bet then, won't you?" With that, he walked out of the Gym, leaving a slightly annoyed Chifuyu in his place.

With a scan of his security badge he entered the teachers dorms, which was now busy with teachers, most of which were early twenty somethings. The dozens of groups talking to each other immediately fell silent, all occupants of the building turned their attention to the young man. He could've swore he heard a record scratch. Ignoring the onlookers he headed straight towards his room, scanning his identification and entering the room, smoothly closing the door behind him.

* * *

**A/N:** Here we are, finally. Canon timeline. Things will obviously be different, but the major changes will be later in the timeline.

I liked the interaction between Ichika and Chifuyu. Both a serious and funny conversation. No I'm not shipping Ichika and Chifuyu, I have no plans for a romance in this story. They're close to each other and like any pair of friends/siblings, mess with each other.

* * *

**Personal Responses:**

**Just Some Guy:** I don't have any plans for a romance, but if I do add one it will not be harem. And no he wouldn't put up with anyones shit, not even his own.


	8. Chapter 8

[April 20th, 6:23 a.m.]

A blur zoomed around a course, twirling in the area around obstacles and dodging energy bolts. After passing through a large archway it decelerated in the air.

"One minute, twenty two seconds." Tabane looked up from the stopwatch in her hand as Ichika slowed the speed on his Uchigane, landing it to the ground.

"MMmmm." His face was unreadable, but his slight disappointment was clear.

"That's really good!" Tabane said enthusiastically, running up to the large Mecha. "You're improving faster than anyone I've seen! A few weeks of practice and you're already far better than the average novice!" She jumped up and down with excitement.

'_Well...ya. It is, given the time I've been practicing.'_

"Mmmm…. I guess." He didn't sound very convinced.

"Oh, don't be such a baby, Ichika!"

"Chifuyu's fastest time is fifteen seconds." He said in his defense.

"She is a world champion with a decade of experience in piloting. You may be an expert engineer but you only started training a few weeks ago. C'mon, Ikkun! You're doing so well, give me a smile!" She used her fingers to morph his blank expression into a smile, only for his smile to disappear the second she moved her fingers away.

*sigh* "Fine. You want me to be all serious and boring? I will. You're moving is too rough, too jagged. If you want to increase your speed you need to move more fluidly. You're used to treating an IS like a machine, but to pilot one the most properly you need to treat it like an extension of yourself. Stop worrying about moving the entire IS correctly and just worry about moving yourself correctly, the IS will follow along."

A flash of light encompassed the testing arena as Ichika deactivated the Uchigane, dropping a few feet to the floor.

"Thank you for your help, Tabane-nee, but I have to get to the Academy. Work is in….a couple hours." Ichika said after checking his phone. Tabane grabbed him in a light hug before he dashed out of her lab's practice arena.

* * *

[7:25 a.m.]

It was an hour before the second week of school would begin, and that meant that it was the scheduled time for the class representative match.

Usually, students would still be sleeping, while only the most studious would already be preparing for classes. However, the stands of the stadium were packed to the brim with students intending on watching the duel between their two peers.

Cecelia, who had quickly gained a reputation as a snooty and entitled rich girl, was disliked amongst the class of 1-1. Though, the vast majority of the students of the academy had no knowledge of her character, thus she still had many people cheering for her.

Even though Cecelia had some fans, Madoka was the clear crowd favorite. Even amongst her peers out of class 1-1, she already gained a reputation of a kind person you don't want to mess with. Her name could be heard as many shouted her name as the countdown to begin the match started.

In a seperated and elevated area of the stands, Ichika stood observing the large arena from what was the teachers' stands, his hands resting on the safety bar that kept observers from falling to the arena. Behind him to his left was Chifuyu and Maya, enjoying a nice cup of freshly brewed coffee that had steam wafting off of it.

Many seats of the arena were filled with her students, all anticipating the duel between two of the school's newest top students. Even in the slightly secluded area of the stands, all occupants could hear the loud cheer as the countdown began, the two IS readied themselves for the upcoming fight. A loud alarm signaled the start of the match and Celcilia flew into the air, attempting to gain the high ground, Madoka quickly sped after her.

"There is no need to be worried, Onee-sama, our imouto will perform admirably." Ichika said in the most comforting voice he could muster.

"I'm not nervous!" Chifuyu immediately argued. She would've protested that he called her Orimura-sensei, but Onee-sama was an incredibly-almost too-respectful title, one that Ichika had always referred to her as. He had been gone for 5 years and to be honest every time she heard that title it reminded her of that little kid she had raised, and she just couldn't bring herself to protest.

Chifuyu was about to pour something in her coffee but Ichika stopped her hand without looking away from the match. She looked at him in confusion.

"That's salt, Onee-san." He informed her once again in a soft tone that showed he wasn't making fun of her.

"..." A light blush of embarrassment appeared on her face.

"..." Maya moved her hand as if rubbing her nose to hide a smirk.

"It's on your right, behind the pot of coffee." Ichika said as he pointed, though his line of sight never wavered from the ongoing match.

"...thank you." She said as she set down the salt and picked up the sugar.

The teachers who had watched the interaction from behind were shocked at the interaction between the typically ruthless Orimura and her younger brother.

"Ahh…" She wanted to start a conversation with him, but had no idea where to start. It wasn't her fault, she just had no idea how to talk to him. In almost every right he was a completely different person than she had known. She had of course talked to him a few times, but those had been light conversation and one life lesson, not a full conversation.

Chifuyu cleared her throat and forced herself to talk. "Why are you even here?" She cringed, that had come out much harsher than she had intended. She decided to instead direct to the one thing she knew Ichika would always be interested in.

"I mean, I thought you said you were going to be building your personal IS, why are you spending your time watching a duel?" She asked curiously. The teachers behind them were hardly hiding the fact that they were eavesdropping. Most of them were either sitting at a bench or at a table eating or drinking their own food, though they had now all stopped and were leaning toward the trio.

Ichika was paying them no mind but with one glare from the demon principle they all jerked their attention back to the match.

"I came to the same as our co-workers came, to observe." He gave a light nod towards the duel in front of them, which seemingly only he and Chifuyu were paying any attention to.

"I… see…" Many of the teachers behind them were stifling their laughs at Chifuyu's inability to talk to Ichika. It was very entertaining for them to see their boss, as well as the strongest IS pilot on earth, at a complete loss for words.

To be honest one of the reasons Chifuyu was finding it much harder to talk to Ichika than Madoka or Tabane was because she was quite disappointed in herself. She had taken Ichika in and promised to protect him. Then he was kidnapped by Phantom Task, the organization that her own mother headed, because said mother wanted to get back at her. She had promised to protect him and had been the very reason he had been put in danger. After he was taken she swore she would find and rescue him, but she never did. Instead, she had been ambushed and heavily beaten, and taken herself. As if to put a cherry on top of her pile of guilt, Ichika had been the very person to rescue her from whatever fate had in store for her. She had asked Ichika what he had gone through, but he dodged telling her. *sigh* She had failed in practically every aspect of her relationship with Ichika.

Ichika had turned towards his sister and noticed her scowl, he bent down to whisper so only she could hear.

"Please don't think like that Chifuyu." He said very softly. That only had her guilt increase. She couldn't even talk to him and he still knew her well enough to tell exactly how she was thinking.

"Hey." Ichika moved in front of her view of the match so there were face to face, he leaned in again so only she could hear. "Please don't think like that, okay? For me. I promise I am happier here with you and Madoka than anywhere else, and you are happy here with me and Madoka, so really… does anything else matter?" Ichika looked down at her and gave her an extremely rare full smile, heart melting and irresistible, it was his ultimate weapon against a sad Chifuyu. Both of them knew she was still depressed about her failures, but the teacher's stand was not the place to talk about it. She also wanted to get him to talk about what had happened to him, it wasn't healthy to keep a traumatic event (especially one as terrible as 5 years of what she presumed to be torture) to yourself. But once again, not the time, so she tried to set aside those problems for now.

The match had proceeded well for Madoka, just as Ichika had predicted. Her IS had 482/600 points with her opponent's at 249/500. Her IS-the "Silent Zephyrus"-soared gracefully through the sky on its butterfly like wings while dodging oncoming fire. Ichika shifted his attention to her opponent, wanting to study the "Blue Tears" so he could create a strategy to defeat it if need be.

"Orimura-san is truly impressive!" Maya spoke up.

"She really did grow up a lot in those years didn't she." Ichika sighed and turned around, having gained the knowledge of his potential enemy and already knowing what the outcome of the match will be. The bottom of his jacket blew from the wind as he walked away slowly.

...

"Why did he leave?" A teacher sitting a ways away asked no one in particular.

"I'm guessing he only came to watch Alcott-san battle, so he could develop a strategy to take her down if necessary." Chifuyu responded as the battle they were watching ended as Madoka landed a final blow on her opponent.

WINNER: MADOKA ORIMURA. The hologram popped up as the announcement rang across the stadium, the two contestants and the students began to exit the arena.

"That's how he always thinks? Everyone as a potential threat?" A different teacher asked.

"That is how life has forced him to think, forcing him to always take a long look behind his back, to make sure no one tries to stab it." She explained as herself as her coworkers turned glum.

"Can we know what exactly? It might help us help him." Maya asked, many of the teachers nodded.

She debated for a second, not wanting to reveal the private information. _What would Ichika say? "It would be foolish to keep private information if it would benefit someone else to reveal it." *sigh_* _That is exactly what he would say isn't it. And he would be right too._

"You will tell no one of this… it isn't classified information, but it is highly private and sensitive. Tell someone and you will disappear, I promise." Chifuyu warned, they all quickly nodded.

"He… isn't my brother." That created many shocked expressions from the listening teachers.

"Not biologically… I….rescued him from a bad life….a story that is not mine to tell. He was in a bad place and I got him out. I was still a young teenager, but I felt pity for him. I took him in. I didn't know how old he was...not exactly… so I treated him as if he was the same age as Madoka. I trained him harder than anyone has ever been trained, I was incredibly harsh and ruthless. Somewhere along the line he must have mistaken my being a bitch for "tough love". He was always joking, trying to make us… me… laugh. He quickly became Madoka's older brother and Tabane's best friend, but we had a closer bond. His biological mother hadn't even given him a name, so I named him Ichika and gave him my family name." She took a pause.

"For the first 5 years it was great, then… during the Second Mondo Grosso, he was kidnapped. My… my biological mother is… the head of a phantom task." At that every teacher had a shocked expression on their face. "My mother was a good woman, and an excellent mother. But we were in deep poverty. My father took it out on her. One day he lost his job and took it too far." Chifuyu looked down and shook her head.

"She snapped. Claimed she didn't see any other way, and I still don't know what happened. But one day he was just...gone. No trace. She founded an organization with the intention of making sure what happened to her wouldn't happen to another woman. It was a noble goal, or at least it was at first. Her crusade to end male superiority turned into a crusade for female superiority." She stopped and closed her eyes, it was clear this was taking a large toll on her.

"I was by her side for a while….until I saw what she was really trying to do. I left, and took my younger sister along with me. Madoka wasn't even three years old. I have been in contact with her a handful of times after, and never in person. All I know is that she hates me more than almost anything. Sees me as the traitor that stole her youngest daughter from her." Chifuyu was in bad shape. Her emotional dam was clearly cracking as her voice was beginning to catch.

"...you still love her?" Maya prompted.

"...I….she is my mother. She was so very kind. She was like Ichika in a sense, just didn't know when to give up on someone. Yes…...I do….." A long pause ensued before she continued. "When Ichika was taken I have no doubt the terrorists wanted to get to me through him. I… failed to rescue him. Failed to protect him like I swore to myself I would. My own relation to my mother is the entire reason he was taken… tortured… who knows what else."

She took a deep breath. Chifuyu wasn't nearly this open about her private life and sharing it was taking a lot out of her, but she could also feel a large invisible weight being lifted from her shoulders.

"I am sure Phantom Task was going to do whatever they had done to Ichika to me… probably worse, but he broke out and took myself with him. I… don't know what happened in those 5 years, he won't tell anyone, he refused to let me see his body to look at the scars. But just by his face and hand you can tell he was tortured horribly. I failed to protect him… and he is the one protecting me from my own failure. I am the strongest person in the world, that's a fact I have proven twice, and yet he is protecting me… what have I become?" Chifuyu said, finishing her story, revealing a side of herself her co-workers had never seen.

Some teachers were staring at the door Ichika had exited from in pity, the rest were looking at their co-worker who was acting like a completely different person.

"You have not become anything other than what you should be." The usually nervous teacher Maya broke the silence, Chifuyu turned her face to her. "You **are** the strongest, and even though you try to hide it, you're a **good** and **kind** person." Maya smiled. "After all, Ichika loves you, doesn't he?" At that Chifuyu smiled before coughing and putting on her stoic expression.

"That….got away from me. My apologies for rambling. Well, I think I will retire to my room now. After all the match has long since ended." With that she ended the long conversion, emotionally exhausted, and left the teachers stands.

* * *

**A/N:** **Thank you all once more for the support** and I hope you enjoyed the chapter. We hit 70 favs and 90 follows, which is certainly more than I thought I would get. Thanks for that. "Gamer Style" hit 100 follows today which is just ridiculous.

I know this chapter is shorter than average for this story, but it is necessary.

Unfortunately my college semester has begun and **my upload schedule must go back to "only when I can"**. Keep in mind whenever I do **update this story it will still be on Sundays**, so if you're interested in this story I would check then.

* * *

**Personal Responses: **

**Just some guy:** Yeah, avoiding a harem is a choice that I hope pans out well. Hope you liked the chapter.

**Ghostflint:** If I did put Ichika in Star Wars, I think I'd make him a Grey Jedi. Sort of a in between force user who does his own thing without adhering to any one dogma. Glad you think my fanfic is unique, I'll try to keep it that way.


	9. Chapter 9

The days slowly turned into weeks, then the weeks ticked by slightly quicker.

During weekends he spent most of the day at his home working on his "things to do" checklist, which was coming along slowly.

Ichika developed a routine and every second of free time he had was stretched to the limit.

First he would wake up hours before school at 5:00 a.m. to shower and eat, then quickly go back to his house to work on repairing the White Knight and restoring it to its former glory. He couldn't risk it being seen by anyone, not even the three precious to him. Ichika had other ideas for experiments or new technology, and he prefered to keep those private as well.

Then he would teach classes from 8:30 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. after which he would practice his piloting skills in a basic Uchigane or Rapheal Revive. The government and various corporations had offered to make him a IS, but he declined. After the piloting training he would go into the engineering facilities to continue building his personal IS,which was just going to be a slightly altered Uchigane, for times' sake. Once the clock hit 7:00 he would take a short break and eat a late dinner then move on to his physical training which consisted of; weight lifting, endurance training, melee combat (primarily swordsmanship), hand-to-hand, and firearm training.

Basically, he was doing everything he could to stay in peak performance.

He rotated the training activity each day, leaving weekends open. After he finished all of his training he would go back to his dorm at 11:00 to do anything that had to do with his teaching job or adjustments on his cybernetics.

Ichika hadn't forgotten about the talk he and Chifuyu had, specifically the part about him being a workaholic. On weekends he went to visit the Orimura household or Tabane's laboratory, he'd be lying if he said they weren't currently the highlights of his life.

Tabane was always fun to hang out with and even more fun to build inventions with. Madoka was always nice to talk to and adored spending time with him. Chifuyu was the person he could have serious conversations with and, though the moments were far and few between, was very kind underneath.

He loved spending time with them, and he made sure not to spend all his time working just because he knew a threat was somewhere out there, biding its time.

However, he would not lose sight of the mission. Even if he couldn't be a workaholic, he could and would be prepared.

His students were warming up to him, gaining confidence to approach him to ask a question or just for a conversation. He tried not to talk to them before or after school as it would interfere with his priorities, but he was always open to talking during the school hours, answering questions and helping if asked. Ichika noticed his fellow teachers in the halls would look at him with pity, which slightly irked him, he wasn't some fragel **thing, **even physically speaking he towered over them. But they greeted him kindly as he passed by and he would nod and greet them kindly or raise a hand to wave.

* * *

[May 1st. 8:27 a.m.]

Students continued to file in the classroom before the bell would ring.

Madoka sat in her chair with her arms folded to create a pillow for her head as she rolled a pencil between her fingers, attempting to alleviate her boredom before class began.

Cecelia sat atop her desk with crossed legs, sitting tall with perfect posture and her hands folded neatly across her lap.

As for Ichika, he sat leaned far back in the teachers chair with his legs up on the desk, hands folded behind his head, bracing his neck. His co-teacher had taken the initiative for this particular lesson and was in front of the teachers podium, waiting for class to begin.

"The class league matches are next week, you should be preparing." Ichika told his sister.

"That's right!" Said Cecelia, who had become a friend of Madoka and was his first student besides Houki that began to warm up to Ichika. "Even if you did beat me in our duel for the position, don't think I'll just let you slack off on training!" She said adamantly.

"Can you train with me Orimura-sensei?" Madoka asked once more. _*sigh* _"I have told you before your IS is both melee and ranged centered, I am only proficient in melee and don't have my own personal IS, Cecelia would make a far better training partner for you than I would." He said, making a sound argument. "Also, while my knowledge on the IS is second only to Tabane-nee, I myself have only recently begun training on **piloting** an IS." He emphasized.

"But you can't deny how you are! You improve exponentially in everything you do, I'm sure with the mere weeks of experience in piloting you've already far surpassed me. Pleeeeeease train me?" She pleaded with puppy dog eyes.

"Honestly, I don't know why you're so worried, Orimura-san, you're the only representative with a personal IS besides class four." Cecelia pointed out. "If you keep up your training, it should be an easy win for you."

"That information is outdated!" Their attention was drawn to the empty doorway the voice had come from. "The representative of class One-Two also has a personal IS, you know. You can't win that easily!" The shouting voice was revealed to belong to a petite girl that entered the room.

Madoka and Celelia were taken aback, but Ichika remained stoic waiting for the new girl to continue.

"I'm the Representative Candidate of China, Huang Lingyin, and I have come to declare war!" She declared with a smirk.

_War? Someone who declares war with a smile is either a sadistic psychopath or knows nothing of the world's true horrors._

"Rin!" Madoka shouted, leaping up from her spot on the desk and hugging the new girl.

Cecelia looked at Ichika, who just shrugged. "Care to introduce us?" Ichika asked.

"Oh, right! Ah. Orimura-sensei, Cecelia-chan,-" Madoka gestured to Houki, who was sitting quietly in the corner of the room. "-Houki-chan, this is Huang Lingyin or Rin. She is my second childhood friend, she started attending my school almost right after Houki-chan left."

Madoka switched her audience, now talking to Rin. "Rin, this is my first childhood friend Houki Shinonono. A new classmate of mine Cecelia Alcott. And… I know I told you a lot about him but he was… taken… before we met, Ichika Orimura, my elder brother and teacher." Rin looked starstruck at Ichika, but before she had a chance to start stuttering her thoughts were interrupted.

***Smack*** Rin's smirk morphed into a face of pain as she was hit on the head by Demon Principle Chifuyu.

Whilst fiercely rubbing her now aching head, Rin began to protest. "Hey! What was that for-EEK!" She cut herself off after having turned and looked at who had hit her.

"It is almost time for the student home room. Get back to your class Lingyin-san." Chifuyu demanded. Ichika swore he could feel the authority radiating off of her. Intimidation was not the way he normally went about things, but he'd be damned if it didn't work flawlessly for the Brunhilde.

"Chi-Chifuyu-san…" Rin whispered under her breath. Ichika could see her eyes widen in fear, clearly Chifuyu scared her. If someone could survive having been drained of all blood, they would've looked like Rin. The poor girl had gone pale enough to look like a walking corpse. Well, a walking corpse whose knees were shaking in fear.

***Smack*** Every student in the classroom winced sharply as Rin was hit in the head by the Demon Principal's feared attendance book.

"You will call me Orimura-sensei! Now stop blocking the door and go back to class! You're bothering me." Two attendance book hits and getting yelled at. A deadly combination.

"S-sorry…" She was trembling. "I'll come back later. Don't run away Madoka!" She demanded and retreated from the door, making a dash to her classroom. Chifuyu gave Ichika a nod and exited herself, continuing her trek of the hallways. The demon went back to stalking her prey.

Ichika retracted his legs and stood up, clearing his throat in an attempt to get his students attention. "Everyone to your seats." He said as the bell rang, proceeding to start the lesson.

* * *

Unlike every other teacher, Ichika ate lunch with his students. In reality… he had started eating with Madoka at the start of the school year, then Houki joined them… then Cecelia… and now Rin. He would have eaten with Chifuyu, but she was always so busy with work that she stayed in her office for meals.

Sure, some of his co-workers may have called him unprofessional behind his back, but he didn't really care. Besides, they were all likely too busy blushing whenever he talked to them to think he was the unprofessional one.

"Onii-kun doesn't like to touch anyone, most people feel too intimidated to even talk to him, I myself am surprised you shook his hand on the first day you met him." Madoka explained somewhat jealousy. Rin had introduced herself to her elder brother and teacher after the classes had ended.

"I have every right to not like being touched, and I try to not be rude even if such things are honestly a waste of time." He countered.

Madoka's face saddened knowing what he was referencing, she looked down. "Yes, Onii-kun."

"What happened?" Rin asked. Without warning Ichika dropped his fork and stood up sharply, drawing the attention of the cafeteria.

The cafeteria was long gone. He wasn't there. It was the prison. It was hell, the one he would never escape. The harsh coldness contrasted with the fresh hot blood that oozed out of his wounds. His sight, his taste, his touch, it all meant nothing. It was just pain. Endless, and overwhelming.

As soon as it had come it had disappeared.

His senses came back to him. He was in the cafeteria. How much time had passed? Was it seconds or hours this time? Everyone was staring, it couldn't have been long. With a deep breath drawn in and out of his lungs, he calmed himself. All of his students looked confused, but only the few at his table held faces of concern.

Why was he so exhausted?

"It's **private**, no offense intended." Ichika stated, trying not to sound harsh. He turned to Madoka "I've lost my appetite, imouto, I will see you all in class." Ichika said while getting up and leaving.

"You idiot." Houki and Cecelia were surprised at the normally happy Madoka taking such a harsh tone. "Can't you tell by the scars covering his face and hands, not to mention the eyepatch, that he has been through some tough shit? He's trying to move on and doesn't need to be constantly reminded of what he has gone through." She questioned angrily.

"I-I'm sorry I-I didn't mean to-I wasn't trying to…" "I don't care what you were intending to do, now if you'll excuse me I have to go find my brother." Madoka stepped up and left in an angry "humph".

"..."

"Don't worry, she'll forgive you, and Ichika is all logical and stuff right? He knows you didn't intend to trigger bad memories." Cecelia comforted Rin.

"... ya think?" Rin said.

"MMmm." Cecelia hummed. "I mean, he may only hang out with us cause his sister is usually with us….but…. he's still a good guy." She shrugged.

"Mmm."

* * *

"Dammit!" Rin yelled as Madoka once again took her opponent down in the training session. They both deactivated their IS and walked toward Ichika and Cecilia.

Madoka smiled and looked back at Ichika, who was standing a few feet from them even though they were in massive IS's. "How did I do, sensei?"

"You have gone well. You won 4 out of the 5 practice matches, a solid success rate." Ichika said, making Madoka glow. Ichika saw Rin's disappointed face. "Rin." She looked up.

He switched to Chinese Manderin, allowing for a more private conversation. "Do not worry if you cannot defeat an opponent, people improve the most when they have someone that can push them to do better."

_He speaks Chinese? _She looked surprised, then smiled and nodded. "Then… who pushes you to strive better, sensei?"

"Many." Ichika ended the short conversation by switching back to Japanese.

_This guy… always so mysterious._

Celelia and Madoka were looking confused. Madoka puffed her cheeks. "No fair Onii-kun, we don't get to have private conversations."

"That would be because we **all **speak Japanese." Ichika replied.

"...do you speak English?" Cecilia asked in her native tongue.

"It is my secondary." Ichika replied in her tongue, she smiled.

"No fair! I demand equality!" Madoka said jumping and clinging to Ichika's arm.

"Wait, just how many languages do you speak Ichika-kun?" Rin asked.

"As many as I need to." _He keeps so much information secretive._

* * *

[May 9th - 12:00pm]

[Day of the Class League Matches]

Ichika was once again standing next to Chifuyu, watching as the first match of the interclass tournament was about to begin. The few people he had made friends with were all participating in the tournament, so he couldn't sit with them.

The first round was Madoka vs. Rin, which was quite convenient in Ichika's eyes. However, Madoka seemed less confident, but he assured her she would do well whether she lost or won. Rin was across the arena staring down Madoka ready for the fight, determined to beat Madoka. The crowd roared as the countdown sounded and the two IS charged each other. The match continued as the minutes ticked away with Madoka gaining a small lead. However, the fun didn't last long as a sound broke Ichika's focus away from the match. His eyes shot up above the arena, looking farther than any normal human could.

"What?" Chifuyu asked after noticing Ichika's odd behavior.

"The Academy's airspace has been compromised." He pointed up into the sky as everyone followed his finger.

"I don't see anything." A teacher behind them said, who's mind quickly changed as a figure began flying quickly down from the sky straight at the arena. The whole arena shook as a massive IS slammed into the center of the field, creating a small crater in the middle.

_The arena is surrounded in a highly powerful AIC field, it's the reason you can't get in or out of the arena and how the stands are protected, how did that thing get through? Whatever it is it must be strong. We should be able to easily take it down with support from the teachers._

"THE MATCH IS CANCELLED, RETURN IMMEDIATELY!" Shouted one of the teachers over the intercom as an alarm began to blare, signaling the Academy was under attack. "DON'T!" Chifuyu yelled. A flash of movement blew past her as metal walls flashed up, covering all of the stands. "Idiot! You just trapped two of our students in the arena with that thing!" Chifuyu scolded her fellow teacher, who had activated the alarm.

* * *

The screens in the teachers stands were still on as well as those of the student stands, so all of the audience could still see what was happening in the arena.

In the center of the arena was a dense cloud of dust where the unidentified IS had landed.

The dust slowly settled to the ground, revealing an unknown large black IS. It looked to have been built solely to be a tank, with large and thick pieces of armor across the entire IS. Around a hundred feet to the golem IS were the Shenlong and Silent Zephyrus stood, having stopped fighting. The Golem turned to the two IS and raised one of it's large arms. The particle cannon began glowing with power.

A volley of bolts flew toward the two students.

"Rin!" Madoka yelled while dodging the energy blasts, breaking her friend out of her surprise.

"Right!" Rin responded, as the boosters on her IS flared back to life, allowing her to dodge the shots from the unknown IS.

"Orimura. Lingyin. Retreat. This shall be dealt with." Chifuyu's voice reverberated from the speakers of the arena, but the fact that they were still alone with the threat made it clear they didn't have that option.

* * *

"The movements… they are…almost inhuman." Ichika spoke in almost a whisper. "I wonder…" He put aside his theories about the unknown IS for now, and looked around himself.

Most of the teachers in the stands were panicking, doing their best to find a way to get to their students. Chifuyu had remained level headed, and was clearly dwelling on something.

"Ichika." Chifuyu got his attention, the other occupants of the teachers stood silenced to allow her to speak.

She motioned towards the wall 'protecting' the stands. "Can you get through?"

He approached the wall and squinted his eyes, hitting it gently in a few places.

"Thickness?" He asked Chifuyu, who shook her head, having no answer.

"Material?" Another no.

"It's made of a highly dense alloy of Chromium and Titanium." A second year teacher, who specialized in IS Engineering, spoke up.

"How do you know that?" Another teacher said, which everyone else promptly ignored.

_Honestly it should just be an energy barrier, but I suppose it makes my job easier._

"...I can get through." Ichika claimed as all eyes locked onto him. "I just need an IS's heavy impact firearm, long range would be best." One of the teachers nodded and held up her arm as a massive IS sniper rifle appeared in it, which she instantly dropped from the weight. Ichika ran to the weapon and expertly began taking it apart while the teachers only stood watching his genius at work.

"Madoka and Lingyin have engaged the target." Chifuyu warned Ichika who immediately sped up his work as his hands flew across the firearm, efficiently but delicately disassembling it. Her profession alism was slipping as her concern became more and more obvious.

* * *

It was clear from the start that the fight was not going too well.

For her part, Madoka was actually doing a good job of bobbing and weaving between shots from the unknown IS, but it had been almost half a minute, and she hadn't seen any openings for attack. The IS was inhumanly fast. Everywhere she moved to dodge she immediately had to dodge away from again.

Rin was fairing worse. It was clear that her piloting skills were still lacking, and her IS was simply outmatched in terms of speed. For every handful of shots she successfully dodged, another three hit her directly. While Madoka focused on dodging, she had attempted to shoot the unknown IS with her particle cannons, to no avail.

* * *

"Both have been heavily damaged." Chifuyu informed him. He gave up deconstructing the rest of the firearm and punched straight through a remaining large piece, wrenching a glowing part from the center of the weapon. He quickly jammed it into the mechanism he had built.

The teachers stood in astonishment of his work.

"What is it?" The same teacher who offered the firearm asked while pointing at the mechanism in Ichika's arms. Massive leftover parts covered the floor where Ichika had been building his machine. Ichika dashed to the metal wall, his mechanism busting to life as a small but thick lazer flared at the end starting to cut through the metal wall.

"A high density, hand held, plasma cutter." Ichika answered as he angled the lazer, continuing to carve through the wall.

"How the hell did you make that out of a sniper rifle in a minute and a half?!" The teacher who had given him the rifle, questioned.

Ichika ignored that question all together, only concerned in breaking through.

* * *

"RIN!" Madoka yelled as a screen, showing Rin in her own IS, popped up on Madoka's HUD.

"What?!" Rin yelled back, clearing having all her attention on dodging.

"I'm going on the offensive! I need you to cover me!" Madoka said as various energy bolts wizzed mere inches from her face, colliding with the wall behind her.

"How-" "**NOW!"** "Okay!"

**BANG! BANG! **Rin fired her impact cannons. Though she was doing her best to both shoot and dodge, her shields were already draining absurdly fast. Madoka would have to end this quickly, for her sake.

* * *

"How much longer!?" Chifuyu yelled as she watched her sister charge and slice at the IS, getting a few solid hits in before getting batted away.

"Longer if you keep distracting me!" Ichika yelled back.

Not that they weren't freaking out themselves, but it was odd for the many teachers in the room to see their two normally stoic and calm co-workers panicking.

* * *

Madoka groaned as she sat up. The Silent Zephyrs had taken a shot to the face, which sent it, and her, slamming into the side of the arena. Scuffs now covered her IS as she pulled herself up.

Her eyes finally focused, and they did not like the image. Rin was still engaging the IS, having continued to draw fire as to prevent the unknown IS to fire upon the downed Madoka.

Madoka gritted her teeth. Summoning her Star Breaker, she took aim at the IS attacking her friend.

**BANG! BOOM!**

Less than a second after she fired, it hit the IS dead center, sending it slamming against the wall opposite to her, topped off with a satisfying explosion.

Her hopes that it had been destroyed were shattered as it emerged from the rubble, flying straight towards her.

Never one to shy away from a fight, Madoka met its charge head on.

* * *

A large crash sounded as a hole fell out of the metal barrier.

* * *

Only mere milliseconds before hitting the Golem head on, Madoka diverted her path upward. Instead of dodging the attack, the Silent Zephyrs plowed straight into the top of the Golem, tackling it to the ground.

Coming up from the tackle, the Silent Zephyrs pinned the Golem against the dirt arena floor, pushing it down with a foot on it's chest. The metal frames of the large Mechas groaned in protest as The Silent Zephyrs planted a knee on the Golem's chest, forcing it completely flat against the ground.

In the smallest flash of light, the Silent Zephyrs' Star Breaker was replaced with a long, jagged IS knife.

Madoka heavied the Silent Zephyrs's knife over the chest of the Golem.

"Surrender!" She yelled in a naive attempt to give the IS pilot one last chance to surrender, only for it to struggle under the weight of her IS, trying to escape. With a yell of strength, the IS's knife was plunged into the center of the Golem, shattering the armor completely. The glowing eyes slowly flickered… and died.

* * *

The teachers had immediately ran through the hole in the wall. The large group summoned their ISs, some with personal IS, but most without. They flew straight toward the center of the arena, only to see the unknown IS had already been taken out.

The alarm quickly faded as the walls retracted into their original position in front of the stands, Ichika observed the arena, now in the empty teachers section of the stands. All eyes were locked onto the many IS pilots in the center of the arena that surrounded the now broken down unknown IS. Both Madoka and Rin were being quickly escorted out of the arena to the medical bay, in case of any injury.

Ichika deeply observed the broken down IS with his mechanical eye, there was no pilot stuck in its broken frame nor were there any new people standing amongst the teachers. _No pilot? Could it be wirelessly controlled? It isn't very plausible that it had an AI as advanced as __Shirokishi, but it could be._

He began talking to Shirokishi as Chifuyu excited the stands, heading to the Academy's medical facilities.

'_Kishi-san, is it possible that the unknown IS has or had an AI that was controlling it?' _Ichika mentally asked her.

"_No. I cannot detect any coding advanced enough to be an AI in that machine. It isn't an AI, but it __**is**_ _pre-programmed."_

'_Good…..'*sigh* "We need to end this dance between you and Phantom Task before it begins." Shirokishi informed. _

'_...I know…. I know…We need to be prepared for a full on assault…..I just need more time.' _Ichika replied as he turned and slowly exited the stands, his steps echoing across the now silent arena.

"_Something we are running out of….far….far too quickly…"_

* * *

**A/N: **This story has grown a lot more than I ever thought it would. A warm welcome to all of the new readers.

Thank you all for the support. I really don't know what to do besides just give an honest thanks.

It's been really nice getting to know this fandom. I've loved getting to know the few people I've had conversations with through DM.

About this chapter in particular. I did have an alternate version where Ichika took out the IS himself, but I decided to opt for giving Madoka some time to shine.

Online college is….interesting. Calculus, Engineering, and Chemistry online. It's…..a new experience? That's the best description I have. Way better than High School though.

The majority of my target audience is 13-25 and mostly male with some female according to Wattpad, which means the majority of you probably had to attend online schooling as well. I hope it went well and you're all staying safe. My luck to you and your studies. And if you're not attending a school right now, then good luck in whatever you want luck in. :)

No one may care but I do plan on re-writing this fic eventually. They're are already a few small changes I would make, and I cringe whenever I even think about chapters 2 & 3, they are poop. It would be far into the future since I want to improve my writing skills first. I know I want the rewritten version to be as near to an actual book as possible, something you would read and not recognize as being fanfiction if you didn't already know. That's the dream.

* * *

**Personal Response:**

**Just Some Guy: **I Thought Chifuyus' actions would be unexpected, I wanted to show a more emotional side of her that people rarely get to see. Also I needed a way to begin sowing the seeds of history between the characters. I'm glad your cool with irregular uploads. After all, taking time away from this to perform well in College means I can have a career, meaning I can write fanfiction for years to come.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: IDK why but after 15 hours after publishing chapter 10 is still not accessible, so I'm trying this, hope it works.

* * *

In the center of the sprawling grounds of the IS Academy, high in the middle of the awkwardly shaped spiral tower, was the head office. A circular, orb shaped room with walls of almost solely glass, gave any occupant a perfect view of the entire academy.

A few sets of uncomfortable looking chairs and a couch, all faced a desk with stacks of perfectly aligned files and papers. The desks chair was empty.

Sitting in one of the uncomfortable chairs, shifting her legs rather awkwardly and twiddling her thumbs, Maya sat with her head turned away from the desk towards one glass wall.

"You….what?...I'm not sure I understand. You said the student, this-" She gestured to the open file in her hands, which Chifuyu had given to her. "-Charles Dunois, who is a female but is…. pretending...to be male, is trying to steal information….but that I should let them do it?"

"So you do understand, then. Perfectly, in fact." Chifuyu's hand swiftly moved a stack of completed paperwork to the side of her desk, replacing it with a fresh stack that needed her attention.

"But, why? Wh-" "I doubt she is doing it of her own volition. The child probably believes she is doing what is right, to help her father. I'm worried her father is merely a pawn…. was probably promised something along the lines of his failing business being pulled from the fire of bankruptcy….."

"So…?"

"I'm more worried about the girl, to answer your question."

"You...huh? Sorry, you're **more** worried about her than Orimura-kun?"

"I'm more worried about her **because** of him. Orimura-san is a good man, but no one ever said he was a merciful one. There isn't much of a chance, almost none actually, but still a small chance that he could not see the complete picture. If we tell him why she is here he could potentially mistake her as his enemy, instead of a victim. If that's the case…."

"Dead?"

"Undoubtedly."

"Why not just tell him about the situation in its entirety? Openly tell him she is a spy, but is also the victim in this situation?"

"Then he goes straight for her father's throat, that could cause an incident, as well as increased tensions between already strained national relationships. I would prefer to simply tell him nothing, and allow him to figure out the situation on his own terms."

Chifuyu forewent her authoritative voice as she got back into the routine of signing paperwork, and began mumbling. "Not to mention the fact that I am busy enough without his incessant strive to help everyone. Always managing to get himself in trouble." Maya could see her pause her signing for a moment, and rub her temple.

"...you worry about Orimura-kun lot."

Chifuyu met her eyes, clearly annoyed that her work was once again interrupted. "Orimura-**san** is my **co-worker** and I am his **boss**, he is merely my responsibility." She said dryly, as if it was painfully obvious, continuing to fill out paperwork, desperately trying to finish the work so she could leave work.

Maya could hear the scratch of Chifuyus' pen as she signed her name to each paper, before sliding it aside and repeating the process.

"Hmm…" Maya hummed as Chifuyu incessantly concentrated on her work. Maya grinned, oh how she loved teasing Chifuyu, no matter how mean she seemed. In her defense, Chifuyu was always a good enough sport.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"It's kind of cu-"I'll skin you alive."

* * *

Recordings of the fight had been spread across the world. Ichika could tell that Madoka somewhat enjoyed the increased popularity, even though she consistently denied it whenever someone brought it up.

Ichika had continued with his routine of teaching and training, and while he was still very busy in his free time, the job was starting to get slightly dull to him. Sure he enjoyed teaching people about an invention he had a large hand in, he relished in the time off he received (almost all of which he spent with one of the three), the fact that he was doing it to be by Madoka during work was also a plus, but it was….. school.

Say whatever you wanted to try to convince him, school sucked.

He disagreed with the curriculum he was told to teach in many areas. For one, he thought it would be better for aspiring pilots to be taught a heavier amount of practicalities than a majority theoretical and slightly practical amount. He understood many would need to understand the basics of how things worked, but he believed it made far more sense to have two curriculums. One taught to students who wished to be pilots, and one taught to those who wished to be IS engineers, instead of a single one taught to everyone in a desperate attempt to make them all capable of both piloting and building their own IS.

Of course, he saw the irony. Himself believing they should teach less of what he knew how to teach, and more of what he didn't, but hey, the truth was the truth.

Where was he? Oh, right. It was boring, and don't think being a teacher made it any less so. And day by day it was getting duller and duller and the walls of the school were turning greyer and greyer.

For once in his abysmally unlucky life, the universe seemed to be on his side, as today would mark the end of the seemingly infinite uneventfulness.

Standing next to the large holoscreen at the front of the classroom, Ichika gestured to and described the more detailed parts of the Absolute Barrier of an IS, as well as what to do if one failed.

"-when, and I do mean **when**, as you should all prepare yourselves for the worst scenarios, your Absolute Barrier runs out of shield energy, you-Yes?" He gave a small nod towards a student who had raised her hand.

"What do you mean by worst case scenario? Matches are automatically ended once one participant's shield is drained."

"..." Ichika grew concerned as only some of the class seemed surprised by her question, while many others seemed just as confused.

"...I….see. Well, while I do understand that some of you….hope….to only participate in IS competitions as professional pilots….many of you-" '_All of you.' _"-will likely be taking part in military operations throughout your lifetime. At some point in one of these operations it is possible-" '_**Highly**_ _likely.' _"-that your shields may be drained."

"..."

An extremely awkward silence enveloped the room as the fact of what they had signed up for finally dawned on many of the students. Ichika continued to inwardly cringe as he shifted his eyes from students nervously tapping their legs or fiddling with pencils. He made contact with Madoka's eyes which were desperately pleading for him to "do something".

"**Which**." He broke the silence, and drew the class's attention back to him. "Is…." His mind was working overdrive to get him out of the awkward situation he had made. "...why I will do everything in my power to teach you what to do as well as how to survive in said scenarios."

It wasn't much, but it did dissolve some of the tension in the room, and a little light came back to his students' faces. Madoka gave him a small thumbs up that only he saw, but he wasn't too confident that he had brought the room back to the proper atmosphere to teach in.

**Knock. Knock. Knock. **Ichika and his students' attention turned towards the door. Maya, who had been in a meeting, opened the sliding door and entered the room.

_...*sigh*...saved by the bell….I __**really**_ _have to work on my people skills._

Maya seemed to be looking at him with a questioning face, as everyone else was concentrating on her to explain her interruption.

Ichika cleared his throat to gain her attention.

"Oh. Hello class, ah well… today we have a new student transferring into our-." Maya said to the class, but was cut off from the uproar of comments from the students. Many questioned why there was a new student transferring more than a month into the school year, some guessing as to what the newest student would be like, others just bandwagoning on the noise and talking to their friends about random topics.

Ichika was going to silence the class, but as a figure entered the room, the class silenced themselves.

Without even trying, Ichika's mind analyzed every little detail of his newest student.

A uniform that varied greatly from what was standard, so much so that it almost resembles the white suit Ichika typically wore. It looked extremely tight in some areas, as if the manufacturer had made it for an entirely different person, Ichika took note of the slight crease at the middle of the front. Instead of a skirt, the student was wearing dress pants and shoes.

"Hello-" The transfer student started in a French accent. "I-I am Charles Dunois, fr-from France. I am not too familiar with this country, so please… take care of me."

_What is that voice she is putting on? _It was fairly obvious the student was female. At least, obvious to him.

"A...a guy?"

"Yes. I heard that there was a male instructor at this academy. So I transferred from my country-" That was as far as "he" got before the entire class began squealing.

_...huh?_

"No way!"

"A male student! A second male pilot!"

"He's handsome, the type that you want to protect."

"Does that mean he is as strong as Ichika-sama?" Ichika continued to think while the girls squealed and conserved amongst themselves.

_Is…. she __**not**_ _a girl?_

_..._

_No, I'm right. Long thin fingers. The slight curvature in the hips. Thin face. Not to mention her voice is wavering. She is clearly nervous. They must be taking that as "him" being nervous to introduce himself to a class of female students, but she clearly nervous someone will call her out on her disguise. Why is she disguised? Even Madoka looks like she believes the act, does anyone besides me see through this masquerade? I'm sure Chifuyu has, considering all new students go through her first… _Ichika glanced at Maya.

_...can't tell, she either doesn't know or is hiding it well._ He looked back to his newest student. …_she said Dunois? As in Albert Dunois?_

_I've researched him. He heads the Dunois corporation. Committed countless felonies, blackmail, ordering assassinations, anything to keep his power and wealth. He's one of the first people I put on my kill list when I got reacquainted with society…. I didn't think he had any children. _

_..._

_A few options then. She was very recently adopted, was hidden from the public, or is blatantly lying about her lineage. I doubt she would lie about her parentage, she doesn't look foolish enough to think she could get away with that. At the very least she must have Alberts support, regardless of her parentage. For her sake I hope she is just a paid actress or something of the sort…._

_Whatever this is, it's an attempt by him to save his company, which is currently failing to produce a full fledged 3rd generation IS. Meaning this is somehow connected to money… as is everything these days. _

_...what could he gain?...A few potential pros to having an "in" at the IS Academy. Allies, for one. Experience, I suppose, after all there is a chance he simply sent her here to train, having a good pilot sponsored by his corporation would give his business attention. No. No no no, if he wanted that there is no reason for her disguising herself. What is the benefit? Why would he have her masquerade as a male… it will bring the company more attention but not __**that**_ _much. Why? What does she gain from disguising herself as male?_

…

_...me. She gains me. You don't need to be Tabane to figure out that any male pilot would end up crossing paths with myself in particular. There is a certainty that any male student admitted to this academy would end up in my class. She pretends to be male and gets a guaranteed ticket to the center of my attention._

_A spy, then. To sabotage? Mmm, no. I don't see any way that would be beneficial to him. To steal? Most likely. So she is a spy, sent to either steal an IS or to steal information. My guess would be Albert probably thinks if he can get either an advanced IS or information, he can use it to save his dying company by finally creating a third generation IS._

_That's not going to happen. I am no fool._

_So that means I'll have to separate "Charles" from Albert's control, which is actually already done unknown to both of them. The Alaskan Treaty clearly states that no student of this Academy is under control by any country. Although France could still remove her candidacy if she declared the relations between her and her father null and void, adding to that the fact that after she graduates Mr. Dunois could repossess her personal IS and I seriously doubt that she would declare her relation to Mr. Dunois null. _

… _I'll have to find a way to both separate her from her father and end her father's crimes… I'll figure something out later._

It was Maya's turn to clear her throat, breaking him out of his thoughts. He could think fast, but it did occur to him that even at his speed of thought, he had still been staring at his newest student for a handful of seconds without saying a word. Probably not the best first impression.

"Very well then, Dunois-san. You may pick a seat on a later occasion, as of now we are about to commence our first day of practical training. We will handle other matters such as your dormitory after class."

The bell rang ending SHR.

Students as well as Maya filled out of the room to go change. As Ichika was the teacher for theoretical portions, he would simply be overseeing and providing basic directions during the practical lesson, while Maya would be taking the more hands on approach by piloting her own IS. Which also meant that he had some time to remedy his poor first impression with Dunois.

"Ah, Orimura-sensei we meet for the first time, I will be honored to be your student." Charles said, as she gave a slight bow.

"...I will be honored to be your teacher, but please, as long as it is just you and me, call me Ichika." He replied, though he did not return a bow. "After all, we are the same age, even if we are teacher and student."

"Ah… alright."

"Now, we will talk after class on other matters, but for now you need to go to the Male changing room to change into our piloting uniforms before practice, so I suggest you allow me to show you the way."

"Oh…" Charles was flustered. _That confirms it. I didn't even mention anyone changing with her, but she is still flustered just from mentioning the Male changing room._

"I suggest you stay by my side. This is obviously a mostly female school, and the girls can get a little… excited… but by my side they will let you pass."

"Eh…" Seemingly Charles had no response, or was still guessing at what Ichika meant by excited. "Are, ah. Will you be changing with me?"

"No. Yamada-sensei teaches the practical lessons, so there is no need for myself to change, as I will not be piloting an IS." He saw as Charles gave a hidden sigh of relief."

Immediately after they exited the empty classroom they were greeted by hundreds of girls walking in the halls.

"It's the transfer student!" A girl yelled, the attention of the entire hallway shifted to them, but as Ichika had said, none began bothering them. Only stopping and staring.

"Well? Do you plan to get through this school by ogling your peer and teacher? Back to your responsibilities." With that the chaos of the hallways ensued as students shuffled to their destinations.

After a minute of walking they reached the changing room. Ichika stood next to the entrance of the room as Charles had gone in and quickly came out changed.

The members of Class 1-1 were now all in the second practice arena. Even though they were a group of dozens in the center of the arena, the size of the arena dwarfed them.

Maya had messaged Ichika that she would be slightly late to the arena as she was planning to pilot her suit herself. So, he began to follow the lesson plan.

"We will begin the practical lessons with a practice match. Orimura. Alcott. You two have personal machines, so you will be the ones participating. I want you to show the class what a personal IS is truly capable of." Ichika told the class. Madoka and Cecelia hastily obeyed, running out in the arena and starting to goad and joke with each other.

Ichika interrupted their conversation. "Settle down you two, instead of each other, you will both be fighting against-" He was cut off by a high pitched scream from the sky. Ichika looked up to see an IS tumbling from the sky. In a flash he had deployed his Uchigane and shot into the sky, catching a Rapheal Revive in his hands, making a graceful landing on the ground, placing the IS on its feet.

"Ichika-kun…" Maya said, clearly embarrassed, but Ichika had already placed her down before she could begin rambling.

Maya cleared her throat and regained her composure. "Orimura-san, are you alright?" His bespectacled coworker asked.

"Yes." He relieved her concern, even though **he **was the one that caught **her**. He looked around at his students, who were all either giggling or hiding their laughter.

"Yamada-sensei is a former IS representative candidate. We want you all to know what a trained professional looks like." Ichika explained to the class, who had enough respect for him to remain silent as he talked.

"Well... that was ages ago, and I never went past a representative candidate." Maya protested with a nervous smile.

"Still, it is an impressive accomplishment. You will be more than enough to show the class the full capabilities of an IS pilot. " Ichika replied. _I mean that in all honesty. A representative candidate as well as a teacher at the IS academy, both are rather large achievements. She should have much more confidence in herself._

"Oh… ah… thank you… Orimura-san." Maya was blushing heavily and most of his students were hiding their laughter again. _You have my condolences, but an honest compliment does not mean I am flirting with you Maya._

"You're welcome, Yamada-san." He didn't want her to think he was flirting, but he didn't want to be rude. He was also probably the most respectful person in the entire academy to the admittedly pushover teacher.

"Now then, let's begin already!" Ichika ordered. They assumed combat positions.

"Wait, you want us to fight two on one?" Cecelia asked aloud.

"…" Madoka remained quiet, clearly much more aware as to where the situation was headed.

"I would be more concerned about yourselves…..begin!" He shouted as the three IS flew into the air as he and his remaining students retreated to the edges of the arena.

"Dunois, can you please describe Yamada-san's IS." Ichika asked, curious of whether or not the student would be able to successfully describe the IS, which "Charles" quickly disproved as "he" began almost expertly describing even the most integral parts of the Mayas' Rapheal Revive.

_I suppose that's the final confirmation that she does have Albert's support, not that there was much doubt._

Putting aside his thoughts for the moment, he decided to concentrate on the practice battle in front of him, frankly he ignored "Charles" commentary as it had already served its purpose. Analyzing Madoka's fighting style would be the best way to help her improve, after all. Of course he cared about helping his other students, just not to the same magnitude.

Cecelia had immediately retreated to a distant range, and summoned her "StarDust Shooter" sniper rifle. It was clear she was uncomfortable being within close range of her opponent, which made sense as long range combat was her IS's specialty, but constantly retreating in any fight will turn her into the prey in any given scenario.

Though it soon became clear that she was no slouch when it came to her sniper. She continued a brutal rate of fire and accuracy towards Maya who, even with her expert experience, was having a difficult time dodging every bolt. The reason being that Maya was also being fired upon by Madoka.

Madoka had assessed both the strengths and weaknesses of her partner before the battle had even begun. She had successfully seen that both of their IS were strong at ranged combat, and catered to that strength.

Unfortunately, though she was the better student, she was no teacher. She had no idea how to properly analyze her opponents IS to accommodate for any strategies. This ended in Maya quickly utilizing her grenade launched to blow a deep enough hole in the ground to use as cover against her opponents as she summoned her own sniper rifle to return a much more effective fire.

_...she is good… _Ichika took a mental note of her skill. She also had creative use, having created her own cover out of the ground.

That was the kind of fighter he needed by his side when the final battle against Phantom Task came. He didn't want to break it to his eager students, who would probably clamor to help bring a terrorist organization down when the time came, but he was hoping they would be using his teachings as protection, not an offensive takedown. Even if they could, he was hoping they wouldn't have to.

Seeing as both their shields were being shredded to pieces, Madoka turned her strategy on it's head to accommodate for her opponent's now known weaponry. She shot forward, commanding her bits to form a shield in front of her, blocking the oncoming fire. Cecelia stayed at her position, doing her best to cover fire for Madoka.

_...Cecelia isn't taking time before firing to ensure she doesn't hit Madoka…_ Ichika jotted down the mental note.

Madoka was clearly planning to engage in close quarters combat with Maya, as the Silent Zephyrs had summoned it's knife. To get a clear shot, she needed to move her bits, unfortunately Maya took the opportunity to swiftly nail the Silent Zephyrs head on with a sniper bolt, which at close range drained another chunk of it's shield energy.

…_their teamwork is… decent. They both clearly need work on defense, and making opportunities for each other to attack effectively..._

If a pilot was outnumbered in a fight, the best strategy was to focus effort on taking out the lesser opponent, therefore freeing up effort to focus solely on the more experienced opponent. However, Maya's skill was so clearly above the combined skill of Madoka and Cecelia, that she instead chose to take out the Silent Zephyrs then the Blue Tears, to end the fight quicker as to not take up class time.

Juxtaposed to her low shield energy, Madoka had begun a brutal offensive onslaught with the Silent Zephyrs knife and bits. Surprising both Maya and Ichika as she began efficiently slicing and stabbing at the Rafale Revive, while rotating her shield bits to block any shots the IS got off. The offensive fire from the Blue Tears only increased the increasing damage done to the Rafale Revive. A slight look of concern crossed Maya's face as the Silent Zephyr's knife whizzed by her head multiple times, only being blocked by the energy shield of her Rafale Revive.

_...Madoka might be a little too reliant on the close combat parts of her IS..._

Unfortunately, the offensive fire was hitting both the Rafale Revive, as well as the Silent Zephyrs, which quickly drained the remaining shield energy from Madoka's IS. As the Silent Zephyr's absolute barrier activated as a last defense, Maya moved on to her second opponent, quickly flying towards the Blue Tears.

Finally realizing her mistake, Cecelia immediately stopped firing at the Rafale Revive to avoid hitting the Silent Zephyrs and potentially seriously harming Madoka. Having no closed ranged weapons to fight with, she began to retreat into the air, only to be swiftly shot down by a perfectly placed grenade.

**CRASH.** The entire class, including himself, audibly cringed as the Blue Tears slammed into the ground at high speeds, skidding along the arena floor and kicking up mountains of dirt.

Ichika wasn't sure when "Charles" had stopped commentating…. probably some time around the end when things had gotten more intense. Regardless, most of the students were now looking at him for instructions. He took note that Madoka was in a huff as she, Cecelia, and Maya, re-joined the larger group.

_...hmm..._

"I hope you all have a greater understanding of your goals, now that you have seen what a professional IS pilot looks like in action." Ichika said, before allowing Maya to take control of the lesson.

She quickly began instructing the classes to split into groups, which the personal IS users would lead through drills. _I sincerely hope they treat Yamada-san more seriously from now on. Underestimating an opponent is the first step towards losing a battle, not to mention they should have clear respect for their superiors._

The rest of the school day went along with no notable occurrences, but after the lessons ended Ichika had shown Charles to "his" room. As the first male in the Academy, Charles had been given his own room.

Charlotte was sitting on the floor in front of a small round table, drinking a sip from a cup of steaming tea she was offered by Ichika.

_This… is not what I expected. _She thought.

_I knew I was being hasty to judge, but being covered in scars and wearing an eyepatch makes him... quite intimidating. He is surrounded by a dangerous energy, it's like my instincts are telling me to run from his very presence or kneel at his feet. I had assumed he would be this cold hearted asshole to be honest. He __**is **__straightforward, but not really cold. I mean he takes the time to walk me to my dorm, then makes us tea? He's also extremely polite. That… this… he…. is unexpected. _

She decided to attempt to break the ice. "Ah… I've heard that you have been personally training with some of the personal IS pilot's, is that true?"

"It...is. To be more clear, I simply train with my younger sister as she personally requested, her friends simply tag along and it is not my place to deny them that. If you want to join those sessions you must talk to Madoka. Outside of those sessions, I prefer to train alone."

"I….see..." _That is... disappointing, I wonder why he likes to train alone. Although, once again, straight forward but polite. At the very least I can talk to Madoka-san about joining those sessions...she seems kind enough to allow myself to participate._

*sigh* "Look I don't like playing these types of games, so I'll be straightforward. I know you're disguising as a male." Her eyes widened, but Ichika continued. "I know your father is forcing you to."

"Ho- how- uhhh….how do you know that?" Charlotte stumbled on her words.

"So he **is** forcing you...good to know…" Ichika slowly nodded as his theories were confirmed. Her face flushed as the realization that she had fallen for such a basic form of manipulation. How could she remedy this situation? She opened her mouth in protest only for him to continue before she could interject.

"Don't try to hide it, no need to waste time. The good news is I can get you out from under his control." Ichika said as she looked at him stuttering.

"Just take a second to gather your thoughts." Her cheeks reddened further, her embarrassment growing ever more obvious.

"Please don't-" He held up a finger, and she stopped talking.

"Just listen, okay? I'm on your side." She was surprised at the amount of genuineness he could say that to, especially to someone who was almost a complete stranger. Regaining her composure, she gestured for him to continue.

"Thank you. It won't matter if your disguise is revealed, under the Alaskan Treaty no student of this Academy is under the authority of any government. If you reveal your disguise and your father tries to use his influence to remove you from this academy he will be breaking the law, although I'm sure he could easily cover it up. If France does remove your representative candidacy they can't take away your IS until you are no longer a student of this academy or in other words for three years. If your IS or representative candidacy are taken away, I can easily get you another personal IS. As for the candidacy… after three years, should you perform admirably, many countries would likely offer you their own candidacy. However, I doubt that you want to be basically shamed by your own country, so, I have a plan on how to deal with your father, one that will be… satisfactory." Ichika quickly explained as Charles's face continued to shift in emotion.

"Ah… I… well… how can you be sure of that?"

"Please specify."

"Erm… All of it?" She said looking at him confused.

"I don't want or like to brag, but the fact is I **am** a genius. I have been the apprentice of Tabane Shinonono herself for about 10 years. I make IS units and invent for fun. I possess more than enough money to take care of whomever I wish for as long as I please. Even if I do not have enough time to personally build one, I can pay for one to be built. As for how I will take care of your father… I myself am still working out the details, but I assure you I can take care of him."

"Oh. Well… I… ah…" She couldn't help it, it didn't matter if what he was saying was true, with words alone, he showed his determination to help her. She jumped at him and he caught her in a hug. "Thank you. Just... for being a friend." Charlotte realized she was teary eyed and wiped them from her eyes, smiling brightly.

"You're welcome, but I **am** serious Dunois-san." Ichika said, grabbing his data pad and sifting through it until he brought up a section of the Alaskan Treaty that stated the rule he claimed existed. Charlotte only smiled more, which Ichika didn't think was possible, and blushed harder, which he also didn't think was possible.

"... thank you. And… please call me Charlotte." She said in a quiet voice, finally letting Ichika go from the hug, looking away from him.

"Sure..." Ichika responded. "Charlotte… I must say that is a beautiful name, one you should be proud to bear. I'll share some wisdom with you, Charlotte. Blood doesn't matter, it's nothing but liquid that flows through our veins. Family are those who you **choose **to live your life with. You owe nothing to those who created you." She looked back at him. _He said that with such determination, like he was speaking from experience. _

She couldn't fall asleep that entire night. The fact that she was finally free from her father's influence, finally free to be her own person, was overwhelming. Ichika stated that he would help her stand against him even if he did try to get to her and didn't help her fall asleep either. He was probably the first person to show genuine interest in being her friend.

Not far down the silent hall was a napping Madoka, who had fallen asleep whilst studying. She had been reviewing the blueprints of the Silent Zephyrs, going through the practice match from earlier that day and thinking of how she could improve her fighting style for a better balance of offense and defense, as Ichika had suggested after class.

Madoka was at her desk, arms crossed to form a pillow for her head as she drooled into them and onto the crinkled papers under them. Her thick long hair was sprawled out in a mess covering nearly its entire surface.

**Knock. Knock. Knock. **

…

**Knock. Knock. Knock.**

"...mmm…the….hell…?" Houki had told her that she would be out until late that night. It was evening, but she wouldn't exactly call this late. Speaking of, how did she fall asleep when it was still a few hours till midnight? Man that practice fight really did take a lot out of her, she would have to work on her endurance.

**Knock. Knock. Knock.**

"Yeah!...yeah….mmm…" She gave a pitiful shove to push her chair away from the desk and pulled herself to her feet.

**Knock. Knock. Knock.**

"Houki! For fucks sake, so much for "mature" if you've already lost your key-" She unlocked the door and swiftly swung it open. "-caaarrrddd." Chifuyu. Not who she was expecting, not at all.

At any other point in time, she would love to have her sister visit her. However, in her less than impressive state... well… she would prefer to impress her sister… this was….less than so.

"May I come in, Orimura-san?" Chifuyu asked professionally in her standard monotone.

Oh how Madoka cringed at that title. If she was going to insist on calling everyone she knew professionally, Chifuyu might as well just have "I AM UNCOMFORTABLE WITH EXPRESSING MYSELF" written in massive block kanji on her forehead.

Not that she wasn't herself, just not to the same extent the eldest Orimura was.

"...you…may." She walked away from the door, towards the kitchen. "Would you like something to drink?" She grabbed a small pot from under a drawer.

Chifuyu walked in, closing the door behind her.

"I don't suppose you-" "No, I don't. Not that I would give you any, Ichika-nii would be upset. Plus, you don't want to lose a bet do you…?"

She could see a hint of surprise on Chifuyu's face. Clearly she hadn't known Ichika had told her about their little bet.

"Ahh….tea then, please." Madoka nodded, already having filled a pot with water and flipping the heat on. She laid down on her bed, sprawling out completely and yawning as she stretched. Chifuyu sat across from her, legs neatly folded over one another, and with flawless posture.

"So…." Madoka lay on her bed, kicking her legs. A tuft of her unkempt hair fell into her mouth, which she quickly spit out.

"...so…." Her elder sister repeated, massaging her jaw as if something was keeping her from speaking.

"..."

"..."

*Sigh* "SO?" Madoka sat up, and faced Chifuyu.

"...Ichika said that you were in a practice match today, and you lost." Chifuyu gained a slight amount of confidence as Madoka seemed to become interested in her feet. It wasn't much but it did mean she was on the right track.

"...did he say anything else?"

"Yes. Ichika said you seemed upset after having lost? He said he tried bringing it up after class but you dodged his question. He….he thought I would be better if I came to….talk….about it."

_There's some irony for you. _They both thought simultaneously.

"...I wasn't upset, exactly. I was…." She got up and began pacing in front of the bed. "Look, I knew I wouldn't win but getting beaten that quickly in a two versus one does make me a little annoyed…"

"So…"

"So yeah, I'm upset."

"You're being too hard on yourself Madoka. Our teachers wouldn't be much of teachers if merely being outnumbered slightly by two students would allow them to be defeated."

Madoka pitched the bridge of her nose.

"I **know** that. But it doesn't make it any easier to accept that if I fought a teacher I would've really had a chance of winning."

"..."

"..."

"Madoka, if you dedicate yourself, you will be a far more capable pilot than most if not all of the teachers in this academy. Most of us have at most a decade of experience with an IS, while you will have almost double that once you reach your prime."

She sat down next to Chifuyu, rolling her jaw.

"...hmm...you think?" Madoka asked.

"I **know**. You're focusing on the negative. You may have lost, but you were meant to. You're the one that took out the IS that breached the arena barriers. Your talent shows, as does your hard work. Continue focusing on your studies and training, and you will be the one of the best pilots in the world, maybe even the best…"

"..."

"I have to go to Madoka, it's getting late and I have papers to grade."

"Sounds...fun." Madoka said as she walked behind Chifuyu to the door.

"Humphf."

"Chifuyu?" Madoka asked before her sister opened the door.

"Mmm?"

"Thanks."

"Mmhmm." Chifuyu hummed as she once again swiftly opened, excited, and closed the door behind her.

* * *

**A/N:** A warm welcome to any new readers and a warm welcome back to loyal ones.

I took a long time to write this chapter. Mainly because I have had college midterms the last couple of weeks, but also because this chapter is the first one with Charlotte. She won't be a main character, but I still wanted to do her justice. Chapter 9 was also the last one I had mostly pre-written, so future chapters may take more time like this one.

I'm glad I made a second story in which I can more directly interact with my audience. I love writing this story, but having a story in which the audience reading it shapes it as it is written is really fun and fulfilling.

* * *

**Personal Responses:**

**Just some guy:** Thanks for being such a loyal commenter. I know this story isn't really affected by the audience so there isn't much reader interaction, but I appreciate it.

**LL:** Hope you liked it.


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